Many of the common risk alleles discovered to date in genome wide association scans are located in non-protein coding regions. A primary focus of our laboratory is to understand the gene or genes that these variants are acting through. We are adopting a variety of approaches and techniques to develop an approach that will inform our understanding of the functional consequences of risk alleles that are outside of protein coding regions. Another focus of the laboratory is to gain a deeper understanding of the link between the germline and tumor genomes.