Cooperation with Leuven

Today Wim Janssens and Ian Buysschaert from the Marc DeCramer group in Leuven, Belgium came over to the UMCU in Utrecht for the day. They wanted to know whether a SNP they defined in the recent past as associated with a lowered diffusion capacity and/or emphysema could be replicated in the COPACETIC cohort. Publications on SNP associations gain a lot in strength when one can submit data on replicated SNP's in stead of single cohort data. The fact that COPACETIC from the start paid a lot attention to replicating data in large cohorts must have been a very positive element in the FP7 review process.

Replicating can be nerve-wrecking as there is always the chance that one has to decide that the SNP is not associated in another cohort and all work than quickly evaporates. The three of us carried out the calculations this morning and you could see the faces of Wim and Ian change when we could show that their SNP was indeed associated with a lowered diffusion capacity and emphysema. It simply means that their SNP has an genuine added value and it opens new routes to understanding COPD susceptibility. The replication was found despite significant differences between the COPACETIC and there cohort, but that only adds to the finding.

They returned to Leuven in the best of spirits and I am looking forward to the updated manuscript they draft