Seeking a gene genie

摘要

Go to a doctor with allergy-related symptoms and it's a safe bet you'll be asked about family history. Clearly there is a heritable component to allergies. The genetic elements, however, have proved fiendishly hard to pinpoint. Since a working draft of the the human genome was published in 2001, the focus of research has shifted from trying to link specific genes and allergies, to genome-wide association studies of increasing sensitivity. Evidence of ethnic propensity, and an interplay between environmental factors and genetic predisposition, are starting to acuminate this more subtle search for the heritability factors in allergy and asthma.