deCODE genetics is a biopharmaceutical company applying its discoveries in human genetics to develop drugs and diagnostics for common diseases. deCODE is a global leader in gene discovery - its population approach and resources have enabled it to isolate key genes contributing to major public health challenges from cardiovascular disease to cancer. High throughput core facilities in Reykjavik, with robotics and work-flow/quality control informatics systems for sample handling, microsatellite (MS) and SNP genotyping and sequencing. deCODE genetics has a large population based biobank containing whole blood and DNA samples with extensive relevant phenotypic information from around 120.000 Icelanders. deCODE has genotyped around 120.000 Icelanders with 1200-2000 MS markers and ultra fine-mapped numerous regions in more than 50 disease projects. Using the Illumina platform at deCODE has currently genotyped close to 20.000 Icelanders with the 317K Bead Chip, and plans to have genotyped over 40.000 individuals by the end of this year. deCODE´s scientists have developed algorithms and powerful statistical analysis tools including Allegro for multipoint linkage analysis and NEMO for haplotype case-control and QT association analysis.
Tasks in FAD: Generate an at-risk AAA cohort phenotype- and biobank / Perform genome-wide linkage and association studies with the AAA /test genetics variants in other co-morbid diseases studied at deCODE such as cardiovascular, metabolic and immunological diseases i.e. perform phenotype-genotype correlation / test best variants in European populations / diagnostic applications to haplotype and biomarkers to clinical applications.
Members of the FAD staff
Thorsteinsdottir, U (PhD) geneticist, director of population genomics
Matthiasson, SE (MD, PhD) vascular surgeon, clinical coordinator
Thorleifsson, G (PhD) statistician for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases
Gretarsdottir, S (PhD)
Main publication/patent linked to FAD tasks (max 5/5)
Helgadottir A, Thorleifsson G, Magnusson KP, Grétarsdottir S, Steinthorsdottir V, Manolescu A, Jones GT, Rinkel GJ, Blankensteijn JD, Ronkainen A, Jääskeläinen JE, Kyo Y, Lenk GM, Sakalihasan N, Kostulas K, Gottsäter A, Flex A, Stefansson H, Hansen T, Andersen G, Weinsheimer S, Borch-Johnsen K, Jorgensen T, Shah SH, Quyyumi AA, Granger CB, Reilly MP, Austin H, Levey AI, Vaccarino V, Palsdottir E, Walters GB, Jonsdottir T, Snorradottir S, Magnusdottir D, Gudmundsson G, Ferrell RE, Sveinbjornsdottir S, Hernesniemi J, Niemelä M, Limet R, Andersen K, Sigurdsson G, Benediktsson R, Verhoeven EL, Teijink JA, Grobbee DE, Rader DJ, Collier DA, Pedersen O, Pola R, Hillert J, Lindblad B, Valdimarsson EM, Magnadottir HB, Wijmenga C, Tromp G, Baas AF, Ruigrok YM, van Rij AM, Kuivaniemi H, Powell JT, Matthiasson SE, Gulcher JR, Thorgeirsson G, Kong A, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stefansson K. The same sequence variant on 9p21 associates with myocardial infarction, abdominal aortic aneurysm and intracranial aneurysm. Nat Genet. 2008 Feb;40(2):217-24.
Lasky-Su J, Lyon HN, Emilsson V, Heid IM, Molony C, Raby BA, Lazarus R, Klanderman B, Soto-Quiros ME, Avila L, Silverman EK, Thorleifsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Kronenberg F, Vollmert C, Illig T, Fox CS, Levy D, Laird N, Ding X, McQueen MB, Butler J, Ardlie K, Papoutsakis C, Dedoussis G, O’Donnell CJ, Wichmann HE, Celedón JC, Schadt E, Hirschhorn J, Weiss ST, Stefansson K, Lange C. On the replication of genetic associations: timing can be everything! Am J Hum Genet. 2008 Apr;82(4):849-58.
