Researchers from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and the Broad Institute collaborated to resolve an ongoing question within the scientific community: the genetic basis of heart disease.
Data obtained from the 1000 Genomes Project of almost 10 million SNPs from both healthy individuals and those affected with heart disease was analyzed. Based on this exploration, the study’s authors concluded that "genetic susceptibility to this common disease is largely determined by common SNPs of small effect size rather than just a few rare variants with large effects."
Additional statistical analysis of the data also revealed new risk markers, as well as more than 200 genetic variants that can also be linked to the heritability of coronary heart disease.
You can read more about these findings on Science Daily or in the original work published in Nature Genetics.
