In new research published in the April 4, 2013 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) demonstrate that some variants in our genes that could put a person at risk for inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease or rheumatoid arthritis, have been the target of natural selection over the course of human history.
The research team, led by Philip De Jager, MD, PhD, BWH Department of Neurology, and Barbara Stranger, PhD, University of Chicago looked at genome-wide association studies along with protein-protein interaction networks, as well as other data and found 21 places in the genome that bear a 'signature' for both inflammatory disease susceptibility and natural selection.
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