Newswise — As part of a collaborative effort to better understand the relationships among genetics, environment, health and disease, RTI International seeks expertise from the scientific community to help establish a standard set of core measures for genome-wide association studies and other large-scale genomic research efforts.
The goal of this effort is to improve the ability of research groups to combine their data, thus increasing the power to detect genes associated with common, complex disease. The research community and professional organizations are invited to review and comment on proposed measures by responding to a series of surveys that are a part of a three-year project led by researchers at RTI.
The project, called PhenX (prounced "phoenix") for Phenotypes and eXposures, is funded as a cooperative agreement with the National Human Genome Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institute of Health. The goal of PhenX is to select 15 measures for 20 research disciplines that will be made readily accessible to the research community through the PhenX Toolkit at www.phenx.org.
"The participation and collaboration of experts from diverse scientific and health disciplines are essential to making this project a success," said Carol M. Hamilton, Ph.D., director of Bioinformatics at RTI and the project's principal investigator. "Their expertise and insight will be extremely valuable in developing an effective consensus process."
The first PhenX survey, expected be released at the end of June, will present the proposed measures for the demographics domain, addressing such characteristics as sex, age, ethnicity, ancestry, education, income and employment status.
Surveys on additional topics will be made available throughout the project on the PhenX Web site. Researchers interested in participating should sign-up at http://www.phenx.org. Registrants will be notified when a PhenX survey goes live.
In each PhenX survey, researchers will have an opportunity to rate the usefulness and the priority of the domain measures, make suggestions to include other measures, and comment on the protocols and procedures for each of the proposed measures. The anonymous survey is set up for the respondent to provide specific feedback about any or all measures.
The first release of the PhenX Toolkit is anticipated near the end of 2008 with standard measures and associated protocols for demographics and anthropometrics, the study of human measurements. If researchers incorporate measures from the PhenX Toolkit into their studies, then it will be possible to combine complementary studies and to gain a better understanding of how genetics and environment impact health and disease.
"The ability to combine the results of these studies is critical to furthering our knowledge of the many complex relationships between genetics, environmental factors, health and disease," said Dr. Jonathan Haines, chair of the PhenX Steering Committee.
Experts from a wide range of scientific disciplines serve on the PhenX Steering Committee and Working Groups, and liaisons from each of the Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health are active participants. To find out more about who is involved, visit the PhenX Web site http://www.phenx.org.
About RTI International RTI International is one of the world's leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. With projects in more than 40 countries and a staff of more than 2,600, RTI offers innovative research and technical solutions to governments and businesses worldwide in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, democratic governance, economic and social development, energy, and the environment. For more information, visit http://www.rti.org.
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