News & Events

Speaker: Saonli Basu, PhD
Division of Biostatistics and Health Data Science
School of Public Health
University of Minnesota

Topic: Efficient Heritability Estimation in Large-scale Multi-ethnic Cohort Studies

Abstract: SNP heritability of a trait is measured as the proportion of total variance explained by the additive effects of genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Linear mixed models are routinely used to estimate SNP heritability for many complex traits. This approach requires estimation of 'relatedness' among individuals in the sample, which is captured by estimating a genetic relationship matrix (GRM). The GRM estimates pair-wise relatedness under the assumption of a homogeneous population. With global initiatives for diverse genomic research, diverse genetic data are increasingly becoming available. Understanding the extent to genetic architecture overlaps across populations and its impact on SNP heritability and cross-ancestry genetic correlation is crucial to leverage these datasets to advance the genetic etiology of complex traits. Moreover, existing methods are computationally intensive to implement on biobank-scale datasets. In this presentation, I will discuss these challenges and propose alternative strategies to estimate SNP heritability in multi-ethnic large-scale datasets.

Location: Zoom link below

This group meets on the third Tuesday of every month from Noon to 1 p.m. The agenda includes a presentation, program announcements and updates from leaders.

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Meeting ID: 923 156 7783

Organizer: Zhengjia (Nelson) Chen, PhD