Infering Epidemiological Causality using Mendelian Randomisation

很难找出潜在的疾病风险因素，如饮酒或人们的饮食方面，是否真的对心脏病和癌症等疾病有因果关系。遗传学的快速发展意味着我们现在知道影响这些因素的遗传变异。这可能是因为你的基因影响了血液中循环的维生素D等物质的数量，也可能是因为你的基因影响了你的行为，比如你摄入的酒精量。因为你的基因是你父母基因的随机样本（孟德尔随机化），所以可以使用与可改变的风险因素相关的遗传变异来研究这些风险因素是否真的对疾病有因果关系。用于分析这些研究的统计方法被称为工具变量方法。这些方法需要发展，以使它们在孟德尔随机化研究中有用，包括找到检查这些研究中假设的方法。该项目旨在开发工具变量方法，并将其应用于医学研究中的重要实例。

It is very difficult to find out whether potential risk factors for disease, such as alcohol consumption or aspects of people s diet, really have causal effects on diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Rapid developments in genetics mean that we now know about genetic variants that influence these factors. This can happen either because your genes influence the amount of a substance such as vitamin D that circulates in the blood, or because your genes influence your behaviour, such as the amount of alcohol you consume. Because your genes are a random sample of your parents genes ( Mendelian randomization ), it is possible to use genetic variants associated with modifiable risk factors of interest to study whether these risk factors really have causal effects on diseases. The statistical methods used to analyse these studies are called instrumental variables methods. These methods require development in order to make them useful in Mendelian randomization studies, including finding ways to check the assumptions made in these studies. This project aims to develop instrumental variables methods, and to apply them in particular examples of importance in medical research.