Join us in London for an interactive and practical introduction to modern causal inference methods — with vegan and gluten-free refreshments included.
More info & registration 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...
#Epidemiology #CausalInference #UCL #ShortCourses

🎯 Who should attend?
Researchers and analysts in epidemiology, medicine, or social science with experience in applied statistics (MSc+ level, PhD, or postdoc).
💷 Fees:
£800 standard
£400 for external students/ECRs
Free places for eligible PhD or LMIC researchers.

Across three days we’ll combine theory with hands-on practicals.
Topics include:
• Potential outcomes & DAGs
• Target trial emulation
• Regression & propensity scores
• Instrumental variables
• Mediation analysis
• Sensitivity analyses

Work led by Liam Wright, with Gemma Shireby, @timtmorris.bsky.social, and @davidbann.bsky.social.

7/ Our study highlights the power of family-based designs to clarify intergenerational effects—and reminds us that both genes and environments matter.

6/ We also found evidence that maternal BMI was associated with offspring birthweight and adolescent dietary patterns, even after adjusting for inherited genetic liability.

5/ Maternal BMI, however, still showed a strong association with child BMI, even after adjusting for transmission. We estimated maternal indirect effects (via environment) to be ~25–50% the size of the direct genetic effect.

4/ In MR models, there was little evidence that paternal BMI predicted offspring BMI after accounting for direct genetic inheritance. This suggests the paternal BMI-offspring BMI association may be explained by direct inheritance genes, not the paternal environment.

3/ Phenotypically, both maternal and paternal BMI were positively associated with offspring BMI across development. The effects were similar in size—but correlation doesn’t tell us about causality or mechanisms.

2/ We used Mendelian Randomization with polygenic indices (PGIs) in mothers, fathers, and children to separate direct genetic effects from other indirect effects such as nurture—i.e., environmental influences shaped by parents’ genetics.

Do get in touch with me if you'd like to know more.

*Position 2*: Causes of depression, anxiety and ADHD working with colleagues across UCL, the amazing Born in Bradford, Millenium Cohort Study and the MoBA study in Norway, with collaborations in Bristol and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Position 1: Causes of psychosis using new Olink HT proteomics data from ALSPAC, funded by Wellcome, with collaborations with Bath, Cardiff, Oxford and Cambridge universities.

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...