Our research involves developing new methods for finding associations between the genetic makeup of an individual and their phenotypes, such as height and body mass index, or disease susceptibility. Each gene has two copies in the human genome each of which can be active at different levels in a given individual. These differences can modify the effect of genetic variants inside each gene copy. Current methods for finding genetic associations assume all genetic variants are active at the same level regardless of their genomic context. We will develop a new class of genomic discovery methods that will systematically account for the genomic context around each genetic variant to improve the resolution of current genetic findings. Our new methods are expected to further improve the transferability of genomic discoveries across different ancestry backgrounds. This project is currently funded for five years by the United States government (NIH), and we expect it to run for longer than this initial funding period.
