Dempster-Schafer Method in Family Based Association Studies

In experiments designed for family-based association studies, methods such as transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) require large number of trios to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the disease. However, unavailability of large number of trios is the Achilles' heel of many complex disease studies, especially for the late-onset diseases since parents might have passed away or unavailable. This problem motivated us to look for new approaches that require smaller number of trios to detect associations in family based studies. Aiming this, we propose using Dempster-Shafer method of evidence to detect the associations in family-based studies and show that this approach has a good performance in identifying associations with moderate to small sized samples.