[2] A GWAS identifies genetic loci associated with common traits and disease through the analysis of categorized variants across the genome and the catalog provides information from all published GWAS results that meet its criteria.
[4] Over the years, the GWAS catalog has enhanced its data release frequency by adding features such as graphical user interface, ontology-supported search functionality and a curation interface.
[3] The GWAS catalog is widely used to identify causal variants and understand disease mechanisms by biologists, bioinformaticians and other researchers.
[3] The public can gain access to the GWAS Catalog’ s data in three ways:[4] Some current applications of the GWAS Catalog include the use of studies on the genetics of human diseases [5][6] and the heritability of human traits.
[7] The GWAS catalog data can also be used as a pool of markers for SNP studies.