This project describes the role of the lab of Stephanie London in the Laboratory of Respiratory Biology in support of her epidemiologic studies. The laboratory is engaged in selection of polymorphisms for analysis, using bioinformatic methods and genotyping analysis of samples from Dr. London's epidemiologic studies of respiratory disease. In the past year, we have focused on the study of childhood asthma in Mexico City (described under project entitled Genetic And Environmental Factors In Childhood Respiratory Health). The laboratory uses primarily real-time PCR technology to identify genetic polymorphisms in these samples. DIR has recently acquired an Illumina reader. Our lab staff have been trained on the use of this technology and we are planning our first set of genotyping using this technology. The lab staff have also received additional offsite training in haplotype analysis and bioinformatics in service of the labs goals. In the past year, we have shifted our focus from individual SNPs to haplotype analysis and from the analysis of single genes to gene pathways. This entails greater genotyping requirement for each gene. Thus we are very excited about the advent of the Illumina at NIEHS. In the next fiscal year, we will also be beginning a collaboration with the SAPALDIA study which involves the genotyping of 5,000 samples from subjects in a very well characterized air pollution cohort. We will be looking at genes that may modify respiratory and cardiovascular effects of air pollution. In FY2006 we anticipate beginning genotyping on nested case-control samples for asthma and COPD in the Singapore Chinese Health Study.
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