New publication "What phases of the drug development framework can epidemiological studies emulate?" at @amjepi.bsky.social led by me (!), with contributions from @jeremylabrecque.bsky.social, Emily, David R, and Sofia: academic.oup.com/aje/advance-...

What phases of the drug development framework can epidemiological studies emulate?

Abstract. Target trial emulation prompts investigators to frame their analysis question in terms of a hypothetical clinical trial. Although this does not s

academic.oup.com

New paper "Causal inference in Clinical Research: A Primer" at Journal of Periodontal Research - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42466618/ led by Nasir Bashir plus co-authors Moritz Kebschull and Gustavo Nascimento.

Causal Inference in Clinical Research: A Primer - PubMed

The study of causal relationships is central to scientific inquiry. Understanding what disease is, why it arises, and how it can be treated are a set of fundamentally causal questions. In this article...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

New paper: Blood Manganese and Risk of Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Head and Neck published in JAMA Otolaryngology @jamaotolaryngology.com led by Benjamin Clay and Paul Carter, together with Nasir Bashir: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Blood Manganese and Risk of Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Head and Neck

This cis-mendelian randomization study aims to determine if variations in genetically predicted blood manganese are associated with risk of squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hyp...

jamanetwork.com

New publication "Comparison of methods for assessing effects of risk factors on disease progression in Mendelian randomization under index event bias" at @ajhgnews.bsky.social: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S.... Collaboration between Eli Lilly, Sequoia Genetics, and Cambridge University. Thread:

New preprint: "Multivariable Mendelian randomization with weak instruments: a comparison of Bayesian and frequentist methods" led by Andrew Grant: arxiv.org/abs/2606.26638. We present a method for multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR): MVMR-Pony. Thread follows:

Multivariable Mendelian randomization with weak instruments: a comparison of Bayesian and frequentist methods

Weak instruments are a well known limitation for valid causal inference in Mendelian randomization studies. In the single exposure setting, weak instrument bias can be mitigated by selecting genetic i...

arxiv.org

In their recent @ajhgnews.bsky.social Review, @vkarhune.bsky.social, @stevesphd.bsky.social, & co discuss the key considerations and provide advice to produce a higher standard in planning, conducting, reviewing, and interpreting cis-Mendelian randomization studies: https://bit.ly/48DEz0H #ASHG

Our review "Integrating genetic data with biological insight: A practical guide to cis-Mendelian randomization" is now published at @ajhgnews.bsky.social - led by @vkarhune.bsky.social and Benji Woolf with critical insight from Dipender Gill and Pallav Bhatnagar. Thread follows:

The American Journal of Human Genetics@ajhgnews.bsky.social · 5mo ago

📣New Review! 📄Integrating genetic data with biological insight: A practical guide to cis-Mendelian randomization 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 @vkarhune.bsky.social @stevesphd.bsky.social & co 👉 bit.ly/4tKkY7r

New pre-print on treatment effect heterogeneity led by Ash Patel: "Efficient semiparametric estimation of marginal treatment effects with genetic instrumental variables" available at arxiv.org/abs/2603.08871. Brief summary:

Efficient semiparametric estimation of marginal treatment effects with genetic instrumental variables

Alcohol misuse is a key target of public health strategies aimed at reducing cardiovascular risk. The effect of excessive alcohol consumption on blood pressure may vary systematically with individuals...

arxiv.org

Great to be involved in this publication: "Phenome-wide study on alcohol consumption provides genetic evidence for a causal association with multiple diseases and biomarkers" led by Nigussie Kassaw - doi.org/10.1016/j.nu....

New preprint: "Revising the use of F-tests in weak instrument practice: point estimation and beyond" led by James Lane: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... The F>10 threshold for avoiding weak instrument bias has almost mythical status. But where does it come from? And does it make sense? In brief:

New pre-print: "Correcting for effect modification in the doubly-ranked non-linear Mendelian randomization method" led by Ang Zhou available at www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6.... Brief thread:

Correcting for effect modification in the doubly-ranked non-linear Mendelian randomization method

The doubly-ranked non-linear Mendelian randomization method can yield biased estimates when instrument strength varies across individuals due to gene-environment (GxE) interactions. We propose a simpl...

medrxiv.org

LD patterns can make it difficult to select optimal instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization studies. @stevesphd.bsky.social & co of @hggadvances.bsky.social 's latest article evaluate the ability of four selection methods to increase instrument strength: bit.ly/4a0yXih #ASHG

New paper: "Extending the Use of Mendelian Randomisation With Non-Inherited Variants to Assess Socially Transmitted Parental Exposures Under Assortative Mating" published at Genetic Epidemiology and led by Benji Woolf: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... Brief thread:

New paper "Variant selection to maximize variance explained in cis-Mendelian randomization" led by @AngZhou3 and published at @HGGAdvances: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41548043/, with contribution from @vkarhune.bsky.social, Haodong, Janne, Ash, and Eric. Brief thread:

Variant selection to maximize variance explained in cis-Mendelian randomization - PubMed

Optimal selection of instrumental variables (IVs) from a single gene region in cis-Mendelian randomization is challenging as variants are highly correlated due to linkage disequilibrium (LD). Using only the lead variant is convenient but may not achieve full statistical power if multiple signals exi …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

New paper: "Alcohol consumption and risk of cancer: a Mendelian randomization analysis of four biobanks and consortium data" out at BMC Medicine: link.springer.com/article/10.1.... Lots of interesting findings! Brief thread:

Alcohol consumption and risk of cancer: a Mendelian randomization analysis of four biobanks and consortium data - BMC Medicine

Background Alcohol consumption has been linked to cancer risk. Evidence is strongest for seven cancer types: breast, colorectum, oesophagus, liver, mouth, pharynx, and larynx. However, evidence suppor...

link.springer.com

📣📣📣 Excited for our lab's latest preprint, led by Chief Ben-Eghan! www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... tl;dr We identify protein vQTLs in multiple ancestries then use MVMR to show independent effects of mean & variance on disease, suggesting targeting protein variance could have therapeutic potential.

Happy to have co-authored a technical report published by @Policy_Exchange on University Technical Colleges. My role was limited to the statistical report, not the policy document - although I proof read the latter to ensure our analyses was correctly represented.

New pre-print: "Systematic comparison of colocalization methods using protein quantitative trait loci" led by @hwang_seongwon at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Which method does best? Find out!

Systematic comparison of colocalization methods using protein quantitative trait loci

Colocalization is frequently performed as a step to triage findings from genetic investigations linking molecular and disease data. However, the reliability and consistency of the various colocalizati...

biorxiv.org

New pre-print "Mendelian randomization in a multi-ancestry world: reflections and practical advice" led by @amymariemason.bsky.social on - arxiv.org/abs/2510.17554

Mendelian randomization in a multi-ancestry world: reflections and practical advice

Many Mendelian randomization (MR) papers have been conducted only in people of European ancestry, limiting transportability of results to the global population. Expanding MR to diverse ancestry groups...

arxiv.org

New pre-print: "PCSK9 and breast cancer survival: a Mendelian Randomization study" www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... led by Janne Pott. Brief thread:

PCSK9 and breast cancer survival: a Mendelian Randomization study

Background: Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is well known for its causal effects on the lipid metabolism. A recent study identified an association between rs562556 within PCSK9 a...

medrxiv.org

Full recording of the PSI webinar by myself and @jack_bowdenjack on instrumental variable methods is available online: psiweb.org/vod/item/efs...

PSI

The community dedicated to leading and promoting the use of statistics within the healthcare industry for the benefit of patients.

psiweb.org

A pre-print for Chris Wallace's colocPropTest method for proportional colocalization is available online: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @chr1sw.bsky.social

Variable information across SNPs in GWAS data can cause false rejections of colocalisation which can be resolved by proportional colocalisation tests

Fine-mapping is now a standard post-GWAS analysis, but it has been shown to be potentially inaccurate for large meta-analysis GWAS. We show how this can be caused by variable amounts of statistical in...

biorxiv.org

New manuscript led by @BarWoolf "A cautionary note on the naive use of general-population biobanks to study pulmonary arterial hypertension" is now published at Euro Respiratory Journal @ERSpublications: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40967765/. Summary follows:

A cautionary note on the naive use of general-population biobanks to study pulmonary arterial hypertension, with a focus on Mendelian randomization - PubMed

A cautionary note on the naive use of general-population biobanks to study pulmonary arterial hypertension, with a focus on Mendelian randomization

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

New pre-print online: "Context-stratified Mendelian randomization: exploiting regional exposure variation to explore causal effect heterogeneity and non-linearity", arxiv.org/abs/2507.11088. We propose an alternative approach to assess non-linearity in Mendelian randomization.

Context-stratified Mendelian randomization: exploiting regional exposure variation to explore causal effect heterogeneity and non-linearity

Mendelian randomization (MR) uses genetic variants as instrumental variables to make causal claims. Standard MR approaches typically report a single population-averaged estimate, limiting their abilit...

arxiv.org

New paper led by Nasir Bashir "Periodontitis and Systemic Disease: The Impact of Covariate Selection" published at @JDentRes: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/.... We investigate how disease associations vary with covariate adjustment.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

New publication at @BMJMedicine "Epidemiology: a partnership of technical expertise and clinical insight" co-authored with Debbie Lawlor: bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/.... This essay explores how to be an epidemiologist is in today's world. Comments welcome!

Epidemiology: a partnership of technical expertise and clinical insight

Like all medical fields, epidemiology is a discipline that can be practiced effectively only in partnership with others. While data analysis may seem like a solitary pursuit, epidemiological datasets ...

bmjmedicine.bmj.com

New publication at European Journal of Epidemiology: "Search for common genetic variants to allow reliable Mendelian randomization investigations into ketone metabolism" led by Zhu Liduzi (Julie) Jiesisibieke. Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1.... Brief thread:

Search for common genetic variants to allow reliable Mendelian randomization investigations into ketone metabolism - European Journal of Epidemiology

Ketogenic diets are popular among people aiming for weight management. Ketone supplementation has been linked to improved cognitive performance and increased risk of insulin resistance. We aim to iden...

link.springer.com

Krista and I are giving an introduction to Mendelian randomization in Brown 3 starting in a few moments - I will post my slides here after the session #eshg2025

New paper published at AJE Advances: "The role of estimation in Mendelian randomization: should Mendelian randomization investigations provide estimates?" led by @BarWoolf and myself: academic.oup.com/ajeadvances/.... Brief thread:

The role of estimation in Mendelian randomization: should Mendelian randomization investigations provide estimates?

academic.oup.com

New pre-print: "Mendelian Randomization with longitudinal exposure data: simulation study and real data application" led by Janne Pott is online: medrxiv.org/content/10.1.... Brief thread:

Mendelian Randomization with longitudinal exposure data: simulation study and real data application

Background and aim Mendelian Randomization (MR) is a widely used tool to estimate causal effects using genetic variants as instrumental variables. MR is limited to cross-sectional summary statistics o...

medrxiv.org