A5039356214- Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Lipid metabolism and disorders
- Adipokines, Inflammation, and Metabolic Diseases
- Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: Diagnosis and Treatment
- Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Cancer-related molecular mechanisms research
- Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
- Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
- Management of metastatic bone disease
- Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks
- Effects of Radiation Exposure
- Medical Imaging Techniques and Applications
- Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
- Cell Image Analysis Techniques
- Statistical Methods and Inference
- Glioma Diagnosis and Treatment
- Lipoproteins and Cardiovascular Health
- Folate and B Vitamins Research
- Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
- Cholinesterase and Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2020-2025
Abstract Polygenic risk scores (PRS) have shown successes in clinics, but most PRS methods focus only on participants with distinct primary continental ancestry without accommodating recently-admixed individuals mosaic backgrounds for different segments of their genomes. Here, we develop GAUDI, a novel penalized-regression-based method specifically designed admixed individuals. GAUDI explicitly models ancestry-differential effects while borrowing information across shared We demonstrate...
Background: Effective interventions to lower blood pressure (BP) after stroke are needed, especially for vulnerable populations such as Black individuals and those with post-stroke disability. The TEAMS-BP trial is designed compare the effectiveness of two evidence-based among survivors uncontrolled BP. Methods: Telehealth Enhanced Assessment Management Stroke-BP (TEAMS-BP) compares Intensive Clinic (ICM, in-person medical management home BP monitoring via daily paper logs health promotion...
Abstract Objective Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is a common condition that impacts quality of life and function. There are many evidence-based treatments to address cLBP; however, treatment effects modest, perhaps in part due individual variation response. The Biomarkers for Evaluating Spine Treatments (BEST) Trial was designed as the collaborative centerpiece Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) research program. This consortium sponsored by National Institute Arthritis Musculoskeletal Skin...
Abstract Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of hematological traits have identified over 10 000 distinct trait-specific risk loci. However, at these loci, the underlying causal mechanisms remain incompletely characterized. To elucidate novel biology and better understand known we performed a transcriptome-wide study (TWAS) 29 in 399 835 UK Biobank (UKB) participants European ancestry using gene expression prediction models trained from whole blood RNA-seq data 922 individuals....
Hi-C data provide population averaged estimates of three-dimensional chromatin contacts across cell types and states in bulk samples. Effective analysis entails controlling for the potential confounding factor differential type proportions heterogeneous We propose a novel unsupervised deconvolution method inferring composition from data, Two-step Hi-c UNsupervised DEconvolution appRoach (THUNDER). conducted extensive simulations to test THUNDER based on combining two published single-cell...
Background: Thousands of genetic variants have been associated with hematological traits, though target genes remain unknown at most loci. Moreover, limited analyses conducted in African ancestry and Hispanic/Latino populations; trait more common these populations likely missed. Methods: To derive gene expression prediction models, we used ancestry-stratified datasets from the Multi-Ethnic Study Atherosclerosis (MESA, including n = 229 American 381 participants, monocytes) Depression Genes...
Abstract Polygenic risk scores (PRS) have shown successes in clinics, but most PRS methods focused only on individuals with one primary continental ancestry, thus poorly accommodating recently-admixed individuals. Here, we develop GAUDI, a novel penalized-regression-based method specifically designed for admixed by explicitly modeling ancestry-specific effects and jointly estimating ancestry-shared effects. We demonstrate marked advantages of GAUDI over other through comprehensive simulation...
Abstract Background People hospitalized with COVID-19 often exhibit hematological alterations, such as lower lymphocyte and platelet counts, which have been reported to associate disease prognosis. It is unclear whether inter-individual variability in baseline parameters prior acute infection influences risk of SARS-CoV-2 progression severe COVID-19. Methods We assessed the association blood cell counts indices incident UK Biobank Vanderbilt University Medical Center Synthetic Derivative...
Abstract Hi-C data provide population averaged estimates of three-dimensional chromatin contacts across cell types and states in bulk samples. Effective analysis entails controlling for the potential confounding factor differential type proportions heterogeneous We propose a novel unsupervised deconvolution method inferring composition from data, Two-step Hi-c UNsupervised DEconvolution appRoach (THUNDER). conducted extensive simulations to test THUNDER based on combining two published...
Background: Thousands of genetic variants have been associated with hematological traits, though target genes remain unknown at most loci. Also, limited analyses conducted in African ancestry and Hispanic/Latino populations; trait more common these populations likely missed. Methods: To derive gene expression prediction models, we used ancestry-stratified datasets from the Multi-Ethnic Study Atherosclerosis (MESA, including N=229 American N=381 participants, monocytes) Depression Genes...
Abstract Despite the dramatic underrepresentation of non-European populations in human genetics studies, researchers continue to exclude participants ancestry, even when these data are available. This practice perpetuates existing research disparities and can lead important large effect size associations being missed. Here, we conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) 31 serum urine biomarker quantitative traits African (n=9354), East Asian (n=2559) South (n=9823) UK Biobank ancestry....
Abstract Hematological measures are important intermediate clinical phenotypes for many acute and chronic diseases. highly heritable, although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of loci containing trait-associated variants, the causal genes underlying these associations often uncertain. To better understand genetic regulatory mechanisms, we performed a transcriptome-wide study (TWAS) using PrediXcan to systematically investigate between genetically-predicted...
Abstract Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of hematological traits have identified over 10,000 distinct trait-specific risk loci, but the underlying causal mechanisms at these loci remain incompletely characterized. We performed a transcriptome-wide study (TWAS) 29 in 399,835 UK Biobank (UKB) participants European ancestry using gene expression prediction models trained from whole blood RNA-seq data 922 individuals. discovered 557 TWAS signals associated with previously GWAS...