New pre-print: "Systematic comparison of colocalization methods using protein quantitative trait loci" led by @hwang_seongwon at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Which method does best? Find out!

Excited to share our latest work on the factors that determine what genes we find (and don't find!) in GWAS and burden tests.

We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.

Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:

New pre-print "Mendelian randomization in a multi-ancestry world: reflections and practical advice" led by @amymariemason.bsky.social on - arxiv.org/abs/2510.17554

📣Preprint alert - a tricky one, as there are no significant results (and we all know null-results are hard to publish)
Do PCSK9 levels affect survival in breast cancer patients?
We tried to replicate findings in cell lines and mouse model using 3 Mendelian Randomization approaches, but failed.

Developing risk prediction models for type 2 diabetes and assessing the role of circulating metabolic biomarkers in five independent Finnish cohorts with over 22000 individuals - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

In modern datasets, very large sample sizes combined with slight differences in information across SNPs (eg die to imputation) can mislead fine mapping algorithms, and in turn colocalisation.

Very excited to share new work from my PhD on a new software package for eQTL mapping: quasar. The quasar software package is a C++ program designed to provide a flexible and efficient eQTL mapping. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Booking is now open for the MRC #Biostatistics Unit's 22nd Armitage Day!

Keynote from Matthew Stephens: “The menagerie of matrix factorization methods”

Plus talks by @manuelazucknick.bsky.social, Gibran Hemani and (as yet unnamed!) BSU researchers.

onlinesales.admin.cam.ac.uk/conferences-...

Published: the paper 'On the uses and abuses of Regression Models: a Call for Reform of Statistical Practice and Teaching' by John Carlin and Margarita Moreno-Betancur in the latest issue of Statistics in Medicine onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... (1/8)

Looking for your next research position? We're recruiting two genetic epidemiologists to work on two projects at the Division of Psychiatry at UCL, part of the growing UCL Human Genomics group.

Very happy that my first PhD paper is now out in PLOS Genetics! journals.plos.org/plosgenetics.... We describe our implementation of variant-specific priors in coloc. We show that using distance to the TSS as information about which variants are causal can improve colocalisation performance, 1/n

New paper published at AJE Advances: "The role of estimation in Mendelian randomization: should Mendelian randomization investigations provide estimates?" led by @BarWoolf and myself: academic.oup.com/ajeadvances/.... Brief thread:

New pre-print led by @hwang_seongwon: "Human genetics suggests differing causal pathways from HMGCR inhibition to coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes": www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1.... Brief thread follows:

Our work on immortal time bias "Illustrating the structures of bias from immortal time using directed acyclic graphs" led by Emma Guoyi Yang @yanggy_hku is out at International Journal of Epidemiology: doi.org/10.1093/ije/.... Brief thread:

Dear early career genetic epidemiologists:

The IGES Young Investigator Committee is looking for new members! It's a fun group, low time commitment, and great way to network with peers while supporting trainees around the world.

Apply here by Dec 31st:
www.geneticepi.org/yic_position...

Become a #PhDStudent at our Unit.

An exciting place to start a career in biostatistics research.

Find out more about the great projects we have to offer starting in Oct 2025 & apply 👇
www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/phd-opportun...

@cambridgeuni.bsky.social

Interested in Mendelian randomization or GWAS?

I thought it could be nice to connect the MR and GWAS community so here is a Starter Pack I'm building! 🧬

#academicsky #genomics #genetics #MR

Let me know if you would like to be added or know someone to add. Enjoy and share! go.bsky.app/R19GhDP