The eFORGE tool provides a method to view the tissue specific regulatory component of a set of EWAS DMPs. eFORGE analysis takes a set of DMPs, such as those hits above genome-wide significance threshold in an EWAS study, and analyses whether there is enrichment for overlap of putative functional elements compared to matched background DMPs. It assesses enrichment on a per cell type basis, since functional elements are differentially active in different cell types, and hence can expose tissue-specific signals of enrichment for the given test DMP set. This can reveal the sites of action underlying the EWAS signal, and provide confirmation of the validity of the EWAS where a tissue-specific mechanism is known or expected for the phenotype. Conversely unknown tissue involvements can also be revealed.
