Weinberg and his group publish PLOS Genetics paper

Dr. Seth Weinberg, who co-helmed the 3D Facial Norms Database project from the first phase of FaceBase, has co-authored a paper identifying specific gene variations for healthy human facial characteristics.

In Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Multiple Loci Influencing Normal Human Facial Morphology, published on Aug. 25 in PLOS Genetics, genome-wide association meta-analyses were conducted of 20 quantitative facial measurements derived from the 3D surface images of 3118 healthy individuals of European ancestry. Analyses were performed on just under one million genotyped SNPs.

“Our analysis identified several genetic associations with facial features not previously described in earlier genome-wide studies. What is exciting is that many of these associations involve chromosomal regions harboring genes with known craniofacial function. Such findings can provide insights into the role genes play in the formation of the face and improve our understanding of the causal factors leading to certain craniofacial birth defects.” – Dr. Seth Weinberg.

You can find the publication at PLOS Genetics.