Network Contributions / Beiträge zu Netzwerken
GIANT – Genomewide Investigation of ANThropometric measures
The GIANT consortium is an international assembly of study investigators and genetic epidemiologists, whichs was established to pool genomewide association (GWA) results on anthropometric parameters such as body-mass-index and height.
The GIANT consortium has the aim to determine all relevant genes that are involved in modulating weight, height and more complex measures of obesity. As obesity is a severe risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, it is of utmost importance to understand the biological mechanism for the development of this worldwide increasing condition. Knowing the genes involved in this condition will elucidate these mechanisms. Genomewide association approaches have already proven their power to detect new gene variants involved in common complex disease conditions. And the GIANT partners separately and together have already contributed to this new success of genetic epidemiological studies. The GIANT consortium effort thus will ultimately contribute to understanding the genetic contribution to obesity.
The Institute of Epidemiology of the Helmholtz Zentrum München contributes with the KORA S3/F3 500K Data, which involves 1644 subjects with genomewide SNP panel genotypes. Other partners of the GIANT consortium include Joel Hirschhorn (Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA), Ruth Loos (Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK), Tim Frayling (Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, UK), David Hunter (Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA), Frank Hu (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA), Leif Groop (Lund University, Malmö, Schweden, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finnland) and others.
This consortium was already successful in describing new gene loci for height and implicated new polymorphisms of the MC4R for relevance on body-mass-index and obesity.
Publications:
Lettre G., Jackson A.U.*, Gieger C.*, Schumacher F.R.*, Berndt S.I.*, Serena Sanna S.*, Eyheramendy S., Voight B.F., Butler J.L., Guiducci C., Illig T., Hackett R., Heid I.M., Jacobs K.B., Lysseno V., Uda M., The Diabetes Genetics Initiative, FUSION, KORA, The Prostate, Lung Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, The Nurses’ Health Study, SardiNIA, Boehnke M., Chanock S.J., Groop L.C., Hu F.B., Isomaa B. , Kraft P., Peltonen L., Salomaa V., Schlessinger D., Hunter D.J., Hayes R.B., Abecasis G.R., Wichmann H.E., Mohlke K.L., Hirschhorn J.N. (* equal contributions)
Genome-wide association studies identify ten novel loci for height and highlight new biological pathways in human growth.
Nat Genet in press.