340.732.01 PRINCIPLES OF GENETIC EPIDEMIOLOGY 2

Second offering in a four-quarter series. Details the concepts of linkage disequilibrium, haplotypes, and the use of public information to inform study design and analysis related to haplotypes. Presents genetic association analyses of quantitative and qualitative disease-related phenotypes for both unrelated and family-based sampling designs. Reviews the concepts and tools related to confounding by ancestry, approaches for genome-wide association studies and for assessment of gene-by-gene and gene-by-environment interactions; and methods for genetic linkage analysis. Select class sessions are dedicated to discussion-based and computer-based labs to further illustrate the methods taught.

After successfully completing this course, you should be able to do the following:

• Explain concepts and representations of probability and likelihood • Calculate allele and genotype frequencies • Explain the Hardy-Weinberg principal • Describe states of allelic equilibrium (Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium and Linkage Equilibrium) • Describe sources of allelic variation and maintenance of alleles in populations such as mutation, drift, recombination, migration, selection • Measure allelic variation using heterozygosity, Fst and haplotype frequencies • Calculate measures of relatedness including inbreeding, kinship, IBD states • Use maximum likelihood methods to estimate allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies, and test for Hardy-Weinberg proportions, linkage equilibrium, differences between measured genes and outcomes • Explain the concept of linkage disequilibrium and how it is exploited in genetic association studies • List other types of allelic association