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Statistical genetics research at Lancaster
In recent years there has been an explosion in the amount of genetic data being collected. Perhaps most famous is the Human Genome Project - which gives the DNA sequence of one complete human genome. There are similar projects for a range of species, data which documents the genetic variation within humans, as well as data that is informative about the function and expression of genes, amongst many others. It is a huge statistical challenge to draw valid and important inferences from such data to answer questions such as what are the genetic risk factors of certain diseases, to understand the biological processes through which DNA is inherited, and to learn about the evolutionary history.
To address these and other problems requires the development of scientifically realistic models, together with the application of modern, and often highly computationally intensive, statistical techniques.
About the statistical genetics group
Group members are Paul Fearnhead, Peter Diggle, Thomas Jaki, , Irene Kaimi, and a variety of research students. The group has collaborative links with the biologists, geneticists, vets and other statisticians both within the UK and abroad.
Research activities
- Tracing the source of human Campylobacter jejuni infection.
- Estimation and detection of fine-scale variation in recombination rates.
- Methods for analysing spatial genetic data, and in particular the development of models and methods for inference that fully take account of the structure inherent in genetic data.
- Use of spatial methods in analysing microarray data.
- Analysis of the demographic and biological processes effecting the evolution of campylobacter.
- Development and theory of population genetic models that incorporate selection.
- Kernel density based genome-wide association studies
- Estimating direct effects in case-control association studies
- Analysis of Human Isochore structure.
Recent publications
Fearnhead, P. (2006) sequenceLDhot: Detecting Recombination Hotspots. Bioinformatics, 22 3061-3066.
Fearnhead, P., Smith, N. G. C., Barrigas, M., Fox, A., and French, N. (2005) Analysis of Recombination in Campylobacter jejuni from MLST Population Data. Journal of Molecular Evolution, Vol. 61, 333-340.
Diggle, P., Zheng, P. and Durr, P. (2005) Nonparametric estimation of spatial segregation in a multivariate point process: bovine tuberculosis in Cornwall, UK. Applied Statistics, Vol. 54, 645-658.
