Leonard C. Schalkwyk

TL;DR: The Collaborative Cross will provide a common reference panel specifically designed for the integrative analysis of complex systems and will change the way the authors approach human health and disease.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that quantile normalization methods produce marked improvement, even in highly consistent data, by all three metrics, and that careful selection of preprocessing steps can minimize variance and thus improve statistical power, especially for the detection of the small absolute DNA methylation changes likely associated with complex disease phenotypes.

TL;DR: The analyses suggest that DNA methylation changes may have a role in the onset of AD given that they were observed in presymptomatic subjects and that six of the validated genes connect to a known AD susceptibility gene network.

TL;DR: This study reinforces the importance of DNA methylation in regulating cellular phenotype across tissues, and highlights genomic patterns of epigenetic variation across functionally distinct regions of the brain, providing a resource for the epigenetics and neuroscience research communities.

TL;DR: This study represents, to the best of the knowledge, the first epigenome-wide association study of AD employing a sequential replication design across multiple tissues and highlights the power of this approach for identifying methylomic variation associated with complex disease.