Aims: To identify genetic variants associated with febrile seizures in early childhood.

Hypothesis: Febrile seizures in childhood is linked to specific genetic polymorphisms

A discovery GWAS will be performed on genetic data from 8 different birth cohort studies, all paticipants of the EAGLE consortium. Results from this will be used in a meta-analysis association study.

The study is in line with several recent meta-GWAS studies that also included ALSPAC data.

Due to limited ressources in the ALSPAC group usually working on meta-GWAS projects, the applicants will assist in the data preparation and calculations on site.

Variables: Data from the already performed GWAS will be linked to questionaire data. The outcome variable will be occurrence of febrile seizures from age 3 months to 5 years as a dichotomous variable. This phenotype will be validated in details with the help from Prof. Jean Golding and Prof. Christopher Verity from ALSPAC. Additional information on sex of the child will be included in the analysis.