Thursday, November 20, 2008

Linkage disequlibrium leads to negative results in genetics?

Linkage disequilibrium is a method used to discover associations between alleles. It seems to be based upon simple difference between the probability of a combination alleles and the probability under independence assumption. So - some researchers took their favourite alleles, found associated ones and... got nothing. But it seems to be still enough to publish:
We did not find the deletion or any
of the STR alleles to be in linkage disequilibrium with the 2-marker haplotype,
which was associated with dyslexia in our sample.
The polymorphisms of GRIN2B gene analysed in this study are not likely to be associated with bipolar disorder.
Both negative, both in psychiatry journal. Perhaps a coincidence... Next month
I'll go to a neuroscience-related event (the last speaker's name looks strangely familiar...) maybe I'll learn more.

Still, there is a Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine . It even navigates towards having an impact factor. I need to redirect some of my users there :)

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