Dissecting the genetic architecture of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) triggered by environmental and genetic factors. There is considerable evidence for a significant genetic component to MS susceptibility, such that genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have successfully revealed about 100 common genetic variants associated with MS. However, at least 60% of the overall heritability of MS has not been delineated, so-called missing heritability‚ÄövÑvp. This thesis describes a series of experiments to further elucidate the missing heritability‚ÄövÑvp of MS.