Dr Paul Reynolds

• 1 To understand the importance of both environment and genetic factors in determining risk of disease

enviromental and genetic factors both play a risk in determining inherent risk of disease

monozygotic twins are identical twins, it is possible for them to have different diseases such as cancer, due to enviromental factors

dizygotic twins are non-identical twins they share 50% of genes

• 2 To be aware of the techniques used to show that a disease has a genetic component

FISH can be used to determine singular chromosome issues that are known

CGH testing can be used to determine a wider range of genome issues it allows for more widespread testing

both of the aabove methods are used prenataly

there is an option for whole genome testing however it is much more expensive it is whole genome testing which allows for everything to be checked

• 3 To understand the basis of association studies and their limitations

used to find candidate genes or genome regions that contribute to a specific disease by testing for a correlation between disease status and genetic variation they use people who HAVE the disease and test them for specific genome characteristics and try to find a correlation between them and the disease itself

limitations include

cannot identify all genetic determinants of complex traits It is unlikely that GWAS will ever explain 100% of the heritability of complex traits