Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) are potentially powerful approaches for identifying transcriptional regulatory perturbations (particularly DNA methylation) that associate with phenotypes of interest. In this Opinion article, Lappalainen and Greally provide their views on how to maximize the interpretability and biological insights from these associations, such as by hypothesis-driven consideration of cellular phenotypes, characterizing the roles of transcription factors, dissecting directions of causality and moving towards multi-omics profiling.
- Tuuli Lappalainen
- John M. Greally
