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SUMMARY:Big data in genetic epidemiology: adventures in time and space - D
 r Oliver Davis\, UCL
DTSTART:20141212T150000Z
DTEND:20141212T160000Z
UID:TALK56587@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:38510
DESCRIPTION:Genetic and environmental variation affect all complex human t
 raits and disorders. Recent large-scale genome-wide association studies ha
 ve been successful in identifying some of the specific genetic variants as
 sociated with human behaviour\, and we often assume these associations wil
 l hold true within the same population irrespective of age or environmenta
 l context. However\, twin and family studies tell us that for some traits 
 heritability increases throughout childhood and adolescence\, a finding re
 flected at the molecular level by the changing effect sizes of individual 
 genetic variants. In a similar way\, exposure to different environments ca
 n change how our genetic variants express themselves. One of the major cha
 llenges of coming years will be understanding how we can engineer our envi
 ronment to mitigate genetic risk of disease. But with ever-larger populati
 on samples\, vast and increasing quantities of genetic data and the need f
 or more detailed environmental exposure information\, how can we hope to u
 nravel the complex influences and interactions? I will give two examples o
 f how our lab is addressing that challenge: the spACE project\, which is u
 sing data from tens of thousands of twins to map the world’s genetic and
  environmental hotspots (http://bit.ly/tedsgeo)\, and a new study that is 
 analysing millions of tweets to track genetic and environmental influences
  on psychological wellbeing in emerging adulthood.
LOCATION:Strangeways Research Laboratory
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