@article {363, title = {International Cooperation to Enable the Diagnosis of All Rare Genetic Diseases.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {100}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 04}, pages = {695-705}, abstract = {

Provision of a molecularly confirmed diagnosis in a timely manner for children and adults with rare genetic diseases shortens their "diagnostic odyssey," improves disease management, and fosters genetic counseling with respect to recurrence risks while assuring reproductive choices. In a general clinical genetics setting, the current diagnostic rate is approximately 50\%, but for those who do not receive a molecular diagnosis after the initial genetics evaluation, that rate is much lower. Diagnostic success for these more challenging affected individuals depends to a large extent on progress in the discovery of genes associated with, and mechanisms underlying, rare diseases. Thus, continued research is required for moving toward a more complete catalog of disease-related genes and variants. The International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) was established in 2011 to bring together researchers and organizations invested in rare disease research to develop a means of achieving molecular diagnosis for all rare diseases. Here, we review the current and future bottlenecks to gene discovery and suggest strategies for enabling progress in this regard. Each successful discovery will define potential diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic opportunities for the corresponding rare disease, enabling precision medicine for this patient population.

}, keywords = {Databases, Factual, Exome, Genome, Human, Humans, International Cooperation, Rare Diseases}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.04.003}, author = {Boycott, Kym M and Rath, Ana and Chong, Jessica X and Hartley, Taila and Alkuraya, Fowzan S and Baynam, Gareth and Brookes, Anthony J and Brudno, Michael and Carracedo, Angel and den Dunnen, Johan T and Dyke, Stephanie O M and Estivill, Xavier and Goldblatt, Jack and Gonthier, Catherine and Groft, Stephen C and Gut, Ivo and Hamosh, Ada and Hieter, Philip and H{\"o}hn, Sophie and Hurles, Matthew E and Kaufmann, Petra and Knoppers, Bartha M and Krischer, Jeffrey P and Macek, Milan and Matthijs, Gert and Olry, Annie and Parker, Samantha and Paschall, Justin and Philippakis, Anthony A and Rehm, Heidi L and Robinson, Peter N and Sham, Pak-Chung and Stefanov, Rumen and Taruscio, Domenica and Unni, Divya and Vanstone, Megan R and Zhang, Feng and Brunner, Han and Bamshad, Michael J and Lochm{\"u}ller, Hanns} } @article {131, title = {The Matchmaker Exchange: a platform for rare disease gene discovery.}, journal = {Hum Mutat}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {915-21}, abstract = {

There are few better examples of the need for data sharing than in the rare disease community, where patients, physicians, and researchers must search for "the needle in a haystack" to uncover rare, novel causes of disease within the genome. Impeding the pace of discovery has been the existence of many small siloed datasets within individual research or clinical laboratory databases and/or disease-specific organizations, hoping for serendipitous occasions when two distant investigators happen to learn they have a rare phenotype in common and can "match" these cases to build evidence for causality. However, serendipity has never proven to be a reliable or scalable approach in science. As such, the Matchmaker Exchange (MME) was launched to provide a robust and systematic approach to rare disease gene discovery through the creation of a federated network connecting databases of genotypes and rare phenotypes using a common application programming interface (API). The core building blocks of the MME have been defined and assembled. Three MME services have now been connected through the API and are available for community use. Additional databases that support internal matching are anticipated to join the MME network as it continues to grow.

}, keywords = {Database Management Systems, Databases, Genetic, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Information Dissemination, Rare Diseases, Software}, issn = {1098-1004}, doi = {10.1002/humu.22858}, author = {Philippakis, Anthony A and Azzariti, Danielle R and Beltran, Sergi and Brookes, Anthony J and Brownstein, Catherine A and Brudno, Michael and Brunner, Han G and Buske, Orion J and Carey, Knox and Doll, Cassie and Dumitriu, Sergiu and Dyke, Stephanie O M and den Dunnen, Johan T and Firth, Helen V and Gibbs, Richard A and Girdea, Marta and Gonzalez, Michael and Haendel, Melissa A and Hamosh, Ada and Holm, Ingrid A and Huang, Lijia and Hurles, Matthew E and Hutton, Ben and Krier, Joel B and Misyura, Andriy and Mungall, Christopher J and Paschall, Justin and Paten, Benedict and Robinson, Peter N and Schiettecatte, Fran{\c c}ois and Sobreira, Nara L and Swaminathan, Ganesh J and Taschner, Peter E and Terry, Sharon F and Washington, Nicole L and Z{\"u}chner, Stephan and Boycott, Kym M and Rehm, Heidi L} } @article {317, title = {Digenic inheritance of an SMCHD1 mutation and an FSHD-permissive D4Z4 allele causes facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy type 2.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Dec}, pages = {1370-4}, abstract = {

Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) is characterized by chromatin relaxation of the D4Z4 macrosatellite array on chromosome 4 and expression of the D4Z4-encoded DUX4 gene in skeletal muscle. The more common form, autosomal dominant FSHD1, is caused by contraction of the D4Z4 array, whereas the genetic determinants and inheritance of D4Z4 array contraction-independent FSHD2 are unclear. Here, we show that mutations in SMCHD1 (encoding structural maintenance of chromosomes flexible hinge domain containing 1) on chromosome 18 reduce SMCHD1 protein levels and segregate with genome-wide D4Z4 CpG hypomethylation in human kindreds. FSHD2 occurs in individuals who inherited both the SMCHD1 mutation and a normal-sized D4Z4 array on a chromosome 4 haplotype permissive for DUX4 expression. Reducing SMCHD1 levels in skeletal muscle results in D4Z4 contraction-independent DUX4 expression. Our study identifies SMCHD1 as an epigenetic modifier of the D4Z4 metastable epiallele and as a causal genetic determinant of FSHD2 and possibly other human diseases subject to epigenetic regulation.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Female, Haplotypes, Heredity, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Muscular Dystrophy, Facioscapulohumeral, Mutation}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2454}, author = {Lemmers, Richard J L F and Tawil, Rabi and Petek, Lisa M and Balog, Judit and Block, Gregory J and Santen, Gijs W E and Amell, Amanda M and van der Vliet, Patrick J and Almomani, Rowida and Straasheijm, Kirsten R and Krom, Yvonne D and Klooster, Rinse and Sun, Yu and den Dunnen, Johan T and Helmer, Quinta and Donlin-Smith, Colleen M and Padberg, George W and van Engelen, Baziel G M and de Greef, Jessica C and Aartsma-Rus, Annemieke M and Frants, Rune R and de Visser, Marianne and Desnuelle, Claude and Sacconi, Sabrina and Filippova, Galina N and Bakker, Bert and Bamshad, Michael J and Tapscott, Stephen J and Miller, Daniel G and van der Maarel, Silv{\`e}re M} }