NON-LEAD GRANT W/ MENZIES INST: IDENTIFYING RARE GENETIC VARIANTS CONFERRING SUSCEPTIBILITY TO MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Abstract

Recently there has been success in identifying common genetic variants that confer susceptibility to multiple sclerosis. The variants that have been discovered so far have modest effects on risk of disease, and only explain a small proportion of familial aggregation of disease. In this study we aim to identify rarer genetic variants that have stronger effects on risk of disease, using new statistical methods and new methods to sequence very large amounts of DNA.