Genome-wide association screen for susceptibility genes for pre-eclampsia in UK women. (360G-Wellcome-088841_Z_09_Z)

We propose, in collaboration with the WTCCC, to undertake GWA screening of 2225 UK women with a history of pre-eclampsia. This is the first such study of UK women, and will make use of the unique UK Genetics of Pre-eclampsia (GOPEC) DNA resource, which we believe is one of the best-characterised resources in the world for genetic studies of pre-eclampsia. Extensive phenotypic data were collected from affected women at the time of diagnosis, supervised by a clinical jury of experienced obstetrici ans with a track record in pre-eclampsia research. To increase the power for gene discovery this resource has been augmented by further samples collected by our collaborators using identical inclusion criteria. This minimises phenotypic heterogeneity, whilst ensuring that high quality data are available for the examination of phenotypic subgroups in future. Through our links with international groups actively researching the genetic basis of pre-eclampsia we propose to undertake replication and confirmation studies in a total of 2500 case and 2500 control samples from Northern European women from Norway and Finland. The aim of this research is to elucidate biological pathways underlying pre-eclampsia in order to identify novel targets for its prevention and treatment