Pleiotropy robust Mendelian randomization

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Across the world, scientists are trying to uncover the causes of disease and ill-health, so that resources can be intelligently targeted to improve the lives of the general public. However, ethical considerations often remove the possibility of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), which is the most straightforward and reliable way of assessing causality, and decisions must be made using non-experimental data. Since our genes are randomly assigned from parents to their children at the point of conception, they should not be related to factors such as diet and other lifestyle choices that impact an individual’s health in later life. We can therefore think of them as creating a natural randomized trial. By comparing people’s health across different genetic sub-groups, we can assess whether a risk factor (e.g. cholesterol) causally influences the risk of a disease (e.g. stroke). This is technique is called Mendelian randomization. My research focuses on developing the statistical methods required to perform this analysis, so that it is reliable and efficient.