Intermediate phenotypes have recently been shown to be useful in uncovering association signals that are not detectable using more complex clinical endpoints: illustrative examples include metabolomic biomarkers in cardiovascular research (Suhre et al., 2011), serum IgE concentration in the study of asthma (Moffatt et al., 2010), or neuroimaging-based phenotypes in psychiatry genetics (Rasetti and Weinberger, 2011). The gene discussed is IGHE; the disease is asthma.