The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) (Drs X Estivill and R de Cid) is a genomic research institute that focuses on gene regulation, cell differentiation and development, genomic bioinformatics and systems biology. The Genes and Disease Program is a central block of the CRG, and is headed by Xavier Estivill, who is also the leader of the Genetic Causes of Diseases Group. The group has been involved in a large number of research projects focused on the identification of the molecular base of common human diseases. Current research is focused on psychiatric disorders, inflammatory disorders and hereditary deafness. The CRG group is currently involved in two funded projects in collaboration with the IMIM group (partner 7), one focused in gene-environment interactions in adults (samples from the ECHRS study) and the other focused on the search of gene-environment interaction during childhood development.

The Genotyping Unit of the CRG has been established as one of the three nodes of the new Spanish National Genotyping Centre (CeGen). The CeGen has been created to promote the genotyping capacity of several centres (Barcelona, Madrid and Santiago) and to analyse genetic data at the large-scale. Currently, the CeGen-Barcelona node has three different platforms that cover from low- to high-throughput genotyping: Pyrosequencing (BiotageTM), the lowest throughput platform, SNPlex genotyping (Applied BiosystemsTM), a medium-throughput platform, and the high-throughput platform based on the bead array technology (IlluminaTM). CRG will be responsible for the genotyping in the project. They will provide the genotyping for WPs 4 and 7.