Both groups found that many variations either were in noncoding regions of DNA or were in coding regions but did not alter protein sequence. That clearly gave us a very incorrect notion of the number and the type and the frequencies of variants. Nevertheless, Chakravarti says he still thinks large association studies will be valuable. For example, they may reveal patterns of variations that can't be seen in narrower data sets. Despite the projected benefits of conducting SNP analyses, nobody knows if they will succeed commercially.
Association studies have the same two fundamental economic and technical challenges.
The first is performing 100,000 or more tests on each patient. The second is analyzing DNA from enough individuals to make the data meaningful. But Whitfield argues that it's too early to draw such conclusions. We should take a look at the data when it comes out, instead of prognosticating now. We are just beginning to do and understand these studies.