Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium

{{short description|Human genetics research consortium}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (abbreviated WTCCC) is a collaboration between fifty research groups in the United Kingdom in the field of human genetics. Established in 2005, the WTCCC aims to conduct genome-wide association studies (GWASs) to shed light on the genetic architecture of common human diseases.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ukpdc/collaborators/wtccc-wellcome-trust-case-control-consortium |title=Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium |website=University College London |language=en |access-date=2018-11-23}} The founding chairman of the consortium was University of Oxford statistician Peter Donnelly. The consortium was funded by £9 million from the Wellcome Trust. According to the consortium's website, it has identified "approximately 90" new susceptibility loci for common human diseases.{{Cite web |url=https://www.wtccc.org.uk/ |title=Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium website |language=en-GB |access-date=2018-11-23}}

The consortium's initial goal was to conduct large GWASs for eight common human diseases: tuberculosis, coronary heart disease, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, bipolar disorder and hypertension. These GWASs included a total of 19,000 subjects, of whom 2,000 had one of the eight diseases and an additional 3,000 served as controls.{{Cite press release |title=Researchers set to find 'genetic signposts' for eight diseases |date=2005-09-28 |publisher=Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium |url=https://www.wtccc.org.uk/info/050928.html |language=en-GB |access-date=2018-11-23}} The study participants were genotyped using Affymetrix's GeneChip Human Mapping 500K Array Set, and genotype calling was conducted with the Chiamo algorithm.{{Cite journal |last1=Browning |first1=Brian L. |last2=Browning |first2=Sharon R. |authorlink2=Sharon R. Browning|date=2008-01-26 |title=Haplotypic analysis of Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium data |journal=Human Genetics |language=en |volume=123 |issue=3 |pages=273–280 |doi=10.1007/s00439-008-0472-1 |issn=0340-6717 |pmc=2384233 |pmid=18224336}}

The results of the WTCCC's initial research were reported in Nature in 2007. The research identified 24 genetic association "signals" that were statistically significant at P < 5 × 10⁻⁷.{{Cite journal |last1=Burton |first1=Paul R. |last2=Clayton |first2=David G. |author-link2=David Clayton |last3=Cardon |first3=Lon R.|authorlink3=Lon Cardon |last4=Craddock |first4=Nick |author-link4=Nick Craddock |last5=Deloukas |first5=Panos |author-link5=Panos Deloukas |last6=Duncanson |first6=Audrey |last7=Kwiatkowski |first7=Dominic P. |last8=McCarthy |first8=Mark I. |author-link8=Mark McCarthy |last9=Ouwehand |first9=Willem H. |author-link9=Willem H. Ouwehand |date=2007-06-07 |title=Genome-wide association study of 14,000 cases of seven common diseases and 3,000 shared controls |journal=Nature |language=En |volume=447 |issue=7145 |pages=661–678 |doi=10.1038/nature05911 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=2719288 |pmid=17554300|bibcode=2007Natur.447..661B }}{{Cite journal |last1=Gibson |first1=Greg |author-link=Gregory Gibson (scientist) |last2=Goldstein |first2=David B. |author-link2=David B. Goldstein (geneticist) |date=November 2007 |title=Human Genetics: The Hidden Text of Genome-wide Associations |journal=Current Biology |volume=17 |issue=21 |pages=R929–R932 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2007.08.044 |pmid=17983573 |issn=0960-9822|doi-access=free }} At the time, this was the largest study ever conducted of the genetics of human diseases.{{Cite press release |title=Largest ever study of genetics of common diseases published today |date=2007-06-06 |url=https://wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/largest-ever-study-genetics-common-diseases-published-today |language=en |access-date=2018-11-23 |website=Wellcome Trust}} In announcing the study's findings at a London news conference, Donnelly said, "If you think of the genome as a very long road that you are trying to find your way along in the dark, previously we have only been able to turn lights on in a small number of places, but now we can turn on lights in a large number of places— in this case half a million lights".{{Cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/genes-linked-to-7-common-diseases-1.631058 |title=Genes linked to 7 common diseases |date=2007-06-07 |work=CBC News |access-date=2018-11-23 |language=en-US}} The 2007 Nature paper was later named "paper of the year" by the Lancet,{{Cite journal |last=Summerskill |first=William |date=February 2008 |title=Paper of the year 2007 |journal=The Lancet |volume=371 |issue=9610 |pages=370–371 |doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(08)60183-x |s2cid=53251471 |issn=0140-6736}} and it led to the WTCCC being named "research leader of the year" by Scientific American.{{Cite journal |title=The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, U.K. |last=Mossman |first=Kaspar |date=January 2008 |journal=Scientific American |volume=298 |issue=1 |pages=42 |language=en |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0108-42a |bibcode=2008SciAm.298a..42M }}