Peter M. Visscher

Jan 8, 2025 | nature.com | Peter M. Visscher

AbstractPolygenic genome editing in human embryos and germ cells is predicted to become feasible in the next three decades. Several recent books and academic papers have outlined the ethical concerns raised by germline genome editing and the opportunities that it may present1,2,3. To date, no attempts have been made to predict the consequences of altering specific variants associated with polygenic diseases.

Oct 7, 2024 | nature.com | Julia Sidorenko |Kathryn E Kemper |Bjørn Olav Åsvold |Alireza Ani |Rujia Wang |Ilja M. Nolte | +13 more

AbstractLinkage studies have successfully mapped loci underlying monogenic disorders, but mostly failed when applied to common diseases. Conversely, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified replicable associations between thousands of SNPs and complex traits, yet capture less than half of the total heritability.

Mar 12, 2024 | nature.com | Angli Xue |Zhihong Zhu |Huanwei Wang |Peter M. Visscher |Jian Zeng

AbstractSubstance use behaviours (SUB) including smoking, alcohol consumption, and coffee intake are associated with many health outcomes. However, whether the health effects of SUB are causal remains controversial, especially for alcohol consumption and coffee intake. In this study, we assess 11 commonly used Mendelian Randomization (MR) methods by simulation and apply them to investigate the causal relationship between 7 SUB traits and health outcomes.

Sep 18, 2023 | nature.com | Adrian Campos |Shinichi Namba |Julia Sidorenko |Huanwei Wang |Seunggeun Lee |Yen-Feng Lin | +3 more

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been mostly conducted in populations of European ancestry, which currently limits the transferability of their findings to other populations. Here, we show, through theory, simulations and applications to real data, that adjustment of GWAS analyses for polygenic scores (PGSs) increases the statistical power for discovery across all ancestries.