In a pioneering GWAS study with 786 Japanese chronic HBV carriers and 2,201 controls, Kamatani and colleagues have identified an association between chronic hepatitis B and 11 SNPs in the HLA-DP region, two of which, namely rs3077 and rs9277535, were further validated in three additional Japanese and Thai cohorts [13]. The gene discussed is HLA-DPA1; the disease is chronic hepatitis B virus infection.