Table 3. Selected Consortia and Collaborations.

Study name and website	Brief description
1. BPC3 (Breast and Prostate Cancer and Hormone-Related Gene Variant Study)	This study pools data and biospecimens from 10 large prospective cohorts to conduct research on gene-environment interactions in cancer etiology
2. CADISP (Cervical Artery Dissections and Ischemic Stroke Patients) http://www.chazard.org/cadisp	A European Consortium performing research on ischemic stroke in the young and in particular on cervical artery dissection (the most common cause of ischemic stroke in young people)
3. CALiCo Consortium (Genetic Epidemiology of Causal Variants Across the Life Course) https://www.pagestudy.org/index.php/studies/58-calico	A consortium of well characterized population based studies and a central genotyping and resequencing core laboratory, to accelerate the understanding of the role and population impact of putative causal genetic variants related to complex diseases
4. CARe (Candidate-gene Association REsource) http://www.broad.mit.edu/gen_analysis/care/index.php/Main_Page	An NHLBI collaboration of up to 50,000 participants from nine cohort studies whose outputs will be analytic results from statistical and computational methods used to perform large-scale candidate gene association studies of phenotypes across multiple cohorts, whole-genome association studies, and tests for gene-gene and gene-environment interactions
5. CGASP (Consortium of Genetic Association of Smoking Related Phenotypes)	A consortium sponsored by NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) to conduct a meta-analysis as well as integrate data on the genetics of nicotine addiction, lung cancer, and COPD
6. CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) http://web.chargeconsortium.com	Formed to facilitate genome-wide association study meta-analyses and replication opportunities among multiple large and well-phenotyped longitudinal cohort studies
7. CKDGen Consortium	A team of researchers from the United States and Europe investigating the role of genes in the etiology of common forms of kidney disease
8. COGENT (COlorectal cancer GENeTics)	An international consortium to study the role of polymorphic variation on the risk of colorectal cancer
9. DentalSCORE (Dental Strategies Concentrating on Risk Evaluation)	A collaborative study adding an oral and dental exam component to HeartSCORE, a community-based longitudinal study focusing on racial and socioeconomic disparities in cardiovascular risk
10. DGI (Diabetes Genetics Initiative) http://www.broad.mit.edu/diabetes	A collaboration of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Lund University, and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research to identify the genetic determinants of type 2 diabetes. This collaboration aims to collect and analyze samples from type 2 diabetic patients from nations across the globe, performing whole genome scans to provide a comprehensive view of the DNA sequence variants associated with the disease
11. DIAGRAM (Diabetes Genetics Replication And Meta-analysis Consortium) http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/DIAGRAM/index.html	A genome-wide association study of type 2 diabetes (T2D) from the FUSION, DGI, and WTCCC/UKT2D groups
12. eMERGE (Electronic Medical Records & Genomics) https://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/victr/dcc/projects/acc	A national consortium formed to develop, disseminate, and apply approaches to research that combine DNA biorepositories with electronic medical record (EMR) systems for large-scale, high-throughput genetic research
13. ENGAGE (European Network of Genomic and Genetic Epidemiology) http://www.euengage.org	A 5-year research project started in January 2008 and funded with 12 million euros by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme-Health Theme. The ENGAGE Consortium includes 23 research organizations and two biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies across Europe and in Canada and Australia. Its goal is to identify large numbers of novel susceptibility genes that influence metabolic, behavioral and cardiovascular traits, and to study the interactions between genes and life style factors. It is led by Leena Pettonen at the University of Helsinki
14. EUROCRAN (European Collaboration on Craniofacial Anomalies) http://www.eurocran.org/default.asp	Funded by the European Commission (EC) under the Quality of Life theme of Framework Programme V, EUROCRAN brings together researchers from a range of clinical / scientific disciplines from 19 European centers with the shared aim of improving the management and understanding of craniofacial anomalies (CFA)
15. GAPPS (Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth) http://gappsseattle.org	GAPPS collaborates to help catalyze research to understand causes and find solutions to preterm delivery. GAPPS is developing a repository of data and specimens from diverse women to provide a resource for researchers around the world
16. GARNET (Genomics and Randomized Trials Network, or Genome-wide Association Research Network into Effects of Treatment) http://www.garnetstudy.org/Default.aspx	A series of genome-wide association studies of treatment response in randomized clinical trials that looks to identify genetic variants associated with response to treatments for conditions of clinical or public health significance
17. GEFOS (Genetic Factors of Osteoporosis Consortium) http://www.gefos.org	A large international collaboration that proposes to capitalize on the success of GENOMOS by using Genome Wide Association (GWA) analysis with high density SNP arrays to identify common risk gene variants for osteoporosis
18. GENEVA (GENe EnVironment Association studies) http://www.genevastudy.org	The genetics component of an NIH-wide initiative that aims to accelerate understanding of genetic and environmental contributions to health and disease, its aims are to identify genetic variants related to common, complex diseases, identify variations in gene-trait associations related to environmental exposures, and address potential pathways to disparities in health outcome
19. GIANT (Genome-wide Investigation of ANThropometric measures) http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/epi/beitraege-zu-netzwerken/giant-genomewide-investigation-of-anthropometric-measures/index.html	An international assembly of study investigators and genetic epidemiologists which was established to pool genome-wide association (GWA) results on anthropometric parameters such as body-mass-index and height. The GIANT consortium has the aim to determine all relevant genes that are involved in modulating weight, height and more complex measures of obesity
20. Global BPGen Consortium	A multinational collaboration with investigators from across the US and Europe that seeks to identify genetic variants in known and novel genes that influence blood pressure in the general population
21. Global Lipid Genetics Consortium	The aim of this consortium is to study the genetic determinants of blood low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides
22. ILCCO (International Lung Cancer Consortium) http://ilcco.iarc.fr	An international group of lung cancer researchers established in 2004 with the aim of sharing comparable data from ongoing lung cancer case-control and cohort studies from different geographical areas and ethnicities
23. International Type 2 Diabetes Consortium http://csg.sph.umich.edu/consortium	A consortium of groups mapping genes for NIDDM in diverse populations that has come together to carry out a joint analysis of their linkage data
24. ISGC (International Stroke Genetics Consortium) http://www.strokegenetics.org	A consortium formed in early 2007 for the purpose of facilitating collaborative efforts to perform large scale, multi-center genetic studies in stroke. The aims include: 1) assembling a large well-characterized sample of stroke subjects with DNA, all of whom have been carefully phenotyped; and 2) harmonizing phenotype information to allow easy and reliable primary and secondary analyses of the combined cohort
25. MAGIC (The Meta-Analyses of Glucose and Insulin-related traits Consortium)	A collaborative effort to combine data from multiple GWAS to identify additional loci that affect glycemic and metabolic traits. The genetic studies of fasting glucose levels were originally organized as four distinct consortia: (i) European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology (ENGAGE), combining data from deCODE, Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966), Netherlands Twins Register/Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NTR/NESDA) and the Rotterdam Study; (ii) Genetics of Energy Metabolism (GEM), a meta-analysis of the Lausanne (CoLaus) and TwinsUK scans; (iii) DFS, involving the Diabetes Genetics Initiative (DGI), Finland-United States Investigation of NIDDM Genetics (FUSION) and SardiNIA scans; and (iv) the Framingham Heart Study (FHS)
26. NEIGHBOR (National Eye Institute Glaucoma Human Genetics CollaBORation)	A consortium aiming to identify genetic determinants for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG)
27. NGFN (German National Genome Research Network)	An endeavor to research diseases that have a high incidence in Germany or that are particularly important for health policy due to the prolonged suffering and premature death of the people affected. These diseases include cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the nervous system, infections and inflammation as well as diseases linked to environmental factors
28. P3G Consortium (Public Population Project in Genomics) http://www.p3g.org	A non-profit international consortium founded in 2003 to respond to the growing needs and demands of the population genomics community, its goal is to foster harmonization of research tools developed by its members
29. PAGE (Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology) https://www.pagestudy.org	The purpose of this program is to provide support for the investigation, in well-characterized population studies, of genetic variants identified as potentially causally associated with complex diseases in genome-wide association (GWA) and other genetic studies, with the aim of widespread sharing of the resulting population-based descriptive and association data to accelerate the understanding of genes related to complex diseases
30. PREGENIA (Preterm Birth and Genetics International Alliances)	A consortium established to conduct research to understand genetic predisposition in preterm birth, a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. The aim is to promote research to better understand the genetic basis of preterm birth, and to develop genetic tools to predict women who are at risk for having preterm labor
31. SHARe (SNP Health Association Research) http://public.nhlbi.nih.gov/GeneticsGenomics/home/share.aspx	The NHLBI SHARe Project will conduct genome wide association studies and analyses in several large NHLBI Cohort studies to identify genes underlying cardiovascular and lung disease and other disorders like osteoporosis and diabetes
32. SpiroMeta Consortium	A consortium to facilitate large-scale meta-analysis of GWAS of lung function.
33. SUNLIGHT Consortium (Study of Underlying Genetic Determinants of Vitamin D and Highly Related Traits)	A consortium of 15 epidemiologic studies from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Netherlands, Sweden and Finland investigating the genetic contribution to vitamin D status in almost 32,000 white individuals of European descent
34. TAG (The Tobacco, Alcohol and Genetics Consortium)	The goal of the TAG Consortium is to conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis for smoking-related phenotypes using genotype and smoking phenotype data from existing GWAS of other traits e.g., heart disease, diabetes, etc. The sample size of the TAG Consortium may approach 100,000 subjects and is a multi-national collaboration which has the potential to identify novel genetic loci for smoking
35. WTCCC (Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium) http://www.wtccc.org.uk	A group of 50 research groups across the UK established in 2005, the WTCCC aims are to exploit progress in understanding of patterns of human genome sequence variation along with advances in high-throughput genotyping technologies, and to explore the utility, design and analyses of genome-wide association (GWA) studies