GEI Study - Psoriasis. Homo sapiens

The GEI Studies Project was started as an NIH consortium involving 5 disease groups with funding provided through the Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative (GEI). The objective of the project was to optimize strategies for identifying rare variants as a follow up to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using next-generation sequencing technology. One of the five targeted diseases, Psoriasis, is a multifactorial skin disease characterized by epidermal hyperproliferation and chronic inflammation that affects approximately 2% of Americans. Because only about one-third of all patients with psoriasis have a relative who is also affected with the disorder, psoriasis is not widely recognized as a genetic disease. However, previous research on families and identical twins has shown psoriasis has a strong genetic component, although environmental factors (such as infections, stress, and injuries) are also important. Although no definite psoriasis gene has... (for more see dbGaP study page.)

GEI研究项目由美国国立卫生研究院（National Institutes of Health, NIH）牵头组建联盟，依托基因、环境与健康倡议（Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative, GEI）提供资助，共包含5个疾病研究群组。本项目的目标是优化罕见变异识别策略，作为全基因组关联研究（Genome-Wide Association Studies, GWAS）的后续研究，采用下一代测序技术开展相关工作。5个目标疾病之一的银屑病（Psoriasis）属于多因素皮肤疾病，以表皮过度增殖与慢性炎症为典型特征，约影响2%的美国人群。由于仅约三分之一的银屑病患者存在受累亲属，该病尚未被广泛认定为遗传性疾病。不过既往针对家族与同卵双胞胎的研究显示，银屑病存在较强的遗传基础，尽管感染、应激与创伤等环境因素同样具有重要作用。目前尚未明确银屑病的明确致病基因（更多详情请参见dbGaP研究页面）。