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The pressure of finding human hypertension genes: new tools, old dilemmas

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 22, pages 821–828 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Researchers in hypertension genetics feel like they are left behind again. It always seems that the ‘other’ complex diseases are ahead in the race. Evolving new technologies in the form of genome-wide arrays and ‘omics’ technologies mean that investigators can now potentially identify many novel disease factors in one large-scale experiment. Hypertension research now faces the challenge of where to go next after the first genome-wide association experiments failed to provide robust candidates. In this review, we contemplate the old dilemma of whether such genes may ever be found; however, we believe advancing technologies and plummeting costs of large-scale experiments will contribute to the identification of novel molecules that underlie essential hypertension.

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Acknowledgements

FJC and MT are supported by British Heart Foundation Project Grant PG/06/097/21331 and NIH Fogarty International Research Collaboration Award (R03 TW007165).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK

    F J Charchar

  2. Department of Biomedical Science, School of Science and Engineering, University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

    F J Charchar

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

    L U Zimmerli

  4. Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    M Tomaszewski

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  1. F J Charchar
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Correspondence to F J Charchar.

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Charchar, F., Zimmerli, L. & Tomaszewski, M. The pressure of finding human hypertension genes: new tools, old dilemmas. J Hum Hypertens 22, 821–828 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2008.67

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