Finding The 'real' Gene For Celiac

[gfb1]

another short day for posts... however, this one might actually be important...

23andMe -- one of the new 'personal' genomics companies -- is beginning to build a large-scale database of major human diseases for research. they are trying to incorporate a 'social network'-flavor to identifying important genetic diseases (obviously, one's where they can make $$$) and are (in their words) 'democratizing' that process.

given the vast number of celiacs out there; this might be an opportunity to steer a bit of research our way.

i've already written a brief email to their board noting the expected frequencies of celiac disease in the US (and the potential profits ....), the differing expectations based on race and geography and, most importantly, the inadequacy of the current MHC-haplotype testing. based on large scale interest and the probability of a small number of genes with large effect that are involved in the disease -- i also suggested that they should be able to reduce the current cost ($99) of participation dramatically.

as they say in chicago, "vote early. vote often."

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at bare minimum for $99 you can find out your HLA-DQ2.5 type.

Traditionally, HLA-DQ proteins have been detected using blood tests that look at proteins, not genes . (emphasis mine, gfb) These tests can pick up all subtypes of HLA-DQ proteins associated with Celiac Disease. 23andMe is not able to provide data about all subtypes of HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8. We only report data on one subtype of HLA-DQ2. Of all the risky HLA-DQ subtypes, this subtype, called HLA-DQ2.5, is most often associated with Celiac Disease.

further, they have been able to identify 3 fairly large 'blocks' of chromosomes that may contain the non-HLA genes that influence celiac. with more patient participation, they may be able to 'narrow' those blocks to identify the actual genes involved...

[maile]

Thanks for the link and the info, I really do appreciate your posts on the gene aspect (or lack of) with celiac