Colloquium: Leveraging Population Diversity in Biobank-Scale Datasets to Empower Medical Discoveries

Presented by: Chris Gignoux, PhD, MS
Associate Professor, Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine and Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, and Director, Personalized Ancestry Information Resource, at CU Anschutz Medical Campus

Abstract:
Human populations have an incredibly complex demographic history that has shaped the genetics of modern populations. At the same time, most studies in genetics are performed in populations of European descent. Here,
Gignoux will outline the importance of considering the inherent diversity of modern populations as a tool for discovering novel medical associations.

He will demonstrate the utility of population genetic methods to uncover unique population signatures hidden within larger datasets. We will derive novel insights from the NHGRI/NIMHD PAGE Study, a multi-center initiative in the United States to address the genomics knowledge gap in non-European populations by genotyping 51,698 individuals in 99 populations across the globe, genotyped at over 1.7 million sites across the genome. Gignoux will highlight some recent discoveries in PAGE relevant to both complex and Mendelian diseases. Further, I will discuss some of our applications of similar methods to disentangle population structure using relatedness in UK Biobank.

As the field of human genetics moves increasingly towards personalized medicine, it will be critical to bring large-scale data, plus a nuanced understanding of the interplay between ancestry and genetics, to ensure that discoveries made will benefit all individuals.

Friday, December 7, 2018 at 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Institute for Behavioral Genetics, Room 120
1480 30th Street, Boulder, CO 80309

Event Type

Colloquium/Seminar, Featured Event

Interests

Science & Technology, Research & Innovation

Audience

Students, Faculty, Postdoc

Group
Institute for Behavioral Genetics
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