Since centenarians are so rare, is GWA the right technique for studying them?
P.S.: I think one has to be careful about how we interpret the sample sizes. The power is not determined [only] by the sample size but also by the method you use. T.P.: I think there’s another couple of features that made the centenarians a particularly potent sample to perform this study with. We had evidence for quite some time that this [longevity] ran very strongly in families. … One of the problems with GWA [studies] … is that the phenotype can be very different among different people in the study. [Here], we have these very old individuals that [are more homogenous]. Our primary purpose in conducting this work was to understand the genetic basis of exceptional longevity. … It has nothing to do with trying to get a bunch of people to be 100 or older.
