The consortium will pursue a genome-wide strategy to identify new susceptibility genes for AAA and TAA. DNA from AAA cohorts identified by screening have and will be collected within the consortium and informative TAA families have been identified. Collection of patients with BAV is ongoing and several control groups are available. Secondly, an effort in genetics to identify new mutations in known genes for TAA will be conducted.

One of the gene discovery programs in the FAD study will be a Genome-Wide Association (GWA) study on AAA. (Parneter 15).

In parallel, functional genomics will also be performed through use of transgenic mice, explicative of the relationship between genotype and phenotype.