https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210330081257.htm

The team used its new method, which they describe in a paper publishing today (March 30) in Nature Communications, to confirm the findings of a 2019 study on the genetic factors that contribute to smoking and drinking addiction but noted that it also can be applied to other genome-wide association studies -- or studies that investigate the genetic underpinnings for diseases.

"While we applied the method to study smoking and drinking addiction-related outcomes, it could benefit other similar large-scale consortia studies, including current studies on the host genetic contribution to COVID-19 symptoms," said Dajiang Liu, associate professor of public health sciences and biochemistry and molecular biology, Penn State.