Principles of Genetic Epidemiology

Genetic epidemiology has developed for over forty years, and most related textbooks or reference books are in English, with fewer available in Chinese. This book, with clear and fluent writing, is suitable for students who already have a foundation in genetics and statistics. It serves as an excellent teaching and self-study book for learning genetic epidemiology.

 

The book consists of fourteen chapters, starting with the historical development of genetic epidemiology. It introduces various commonly used core concepts of genetic epidemiology, explaining their meanings, starting from Mendel’s laws of inheritance, including Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, estimation of gene frequencies, genetic drift, linkage disequilibrium, and estimation of haplotype frequencies, as well as basic concepts such as genetic probability and kinship coefficients, genetic linkage, and genetic maps. It then introduces several types of genetic epidemiology research and analysis methods, including quantitative genetics, attributable risk ratio and familial studies, twin studies and segregation analysis, linkage analysis, types of genetic variation and identification, and association analysis. In addition, it also introduces new areas, including polygenic risk scores, Mendelian randomization, gene-environment interactions, pharmacogenomics, and analysis of gene expression and gene regulatory expression.

 

The content of the book progresses systematically, explaining the basic principles of categorical and quantitative trait inheritance analysis, allowing students to understand how to search for disease susceptibility genes through genetic analysis, laying the foundation for further research on genetic epidemiology. The chapters cover important basic principles and concepts of genetic epidemiology, with references provided for significant findings described in the text. It is suitable as an introductory textbook for undergraduate or graduate students, or as a reference book for professionals in medical-related fields.