Tissue-specific regulatory circuits reveal variable modular perturbations across complex diseases

Mapping perturbed molecular circuits that underlie complex diseases remains a great challenge. We developed a comprehensive resource of 394 cell type- and tissue-specific gene regulatory networks for human, each specifying the genome-wide connectivity among transcription factors, enhancers, promoters and genes. Integration with 37 genome-wide association studies (GWASs) showed that disease associated genetic variants including variants that do not reach genome-wide significance often perturb regulatory modules that are highly specific to disease-relevant cell types or tissues. Our resource opens the door to systematic analysis of regulatory programs across hundreds of human cell types and tissues (http://regulatorycircuits.org).