Stephen Burgess
Medical statistician, work with genetic data to disentangle causation from correlation. Author of book on Mendelian randomization.
- New pre-print: "Correcting for effect modification in the doubly-ranked non-linear Mendelian randomization method" led by Ang Zhou available at www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6.... Brief thread:
- Reposted by Stephen BurgessLD patterns can make it difficult to select optimal instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization studies. @stevesphd.bsky.social & co of @hggadvances.bsky.social 's latest article evaluate the ability of four selection methods to increase instrument strength: bit.ly/4a0yXih #ASHG
- New paper: "Extending the Use of Mendelian Randomisation With Non-Inherited Variants to Assess Socially Transmitted Parental Exposures Under Assortative Mating" published at Genetic Epidemiology and led by Benji Woolf: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... Brief thread:
- All models are wrong and all instruments are invalid, but randomness inherent in how genetic variants are inherited means that genetic variants are often plausible instruments, particularly in within-family settings.
- New paper "Variant selection to maximize variance explained in cis-Mendelian randomization" led by @AngZhou3 and published at @HGGAdvances: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41548043/, with contribution from @vkarhune.bsky.social, Haodong, Janne, Ash, and Eric. Brief thread:
- Cis-Mendelian randomization uses variants in a biologically-relevant gene region to make causal claims about the consequences of pharmacological interventions. If the variants mimic the intervention, then associations of the variants inform about the effects of the intervention.
- New paper: "Alcohol consumption and risk of cancer: a Mendelian randomization analysis of four biobanks and consortium data" out at BMC Medicine: link.springer.com/article/10.1.... Lots of interesting findings! Brief thread:
- Mendelian randomization is a non-experimental technique - we do not intervene on alcohol levels. However, by comparing those with and without genetic variants that associate with alcohol consumption, we get closer to the like-with-like comparison needed to make causal claims.
- Reposted by Stephen Burgess📣📣📣 Excited for our lab's latest preprint, led by Chief Ben-Eghan! www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... tl;dr We identify protein vQTLs in multiple ancestries then use MVMR to show independent effects of mean & variance on disease, suggesting targeting protein variance could have therapeutic potential.
- Happy to have co-authored a technical report published by @Policy_Exchange on University Technical Colleges. My role was limited to the statistical report, not the policy document - although I proof read the latter to ensure our analyses was correctly represented.
