B3384 - Variants trait-causal via their effect on VDR binding - 13/10/2019

B number: 
B3384
Principal applicant name: 
Chris Ponting | MRC Institute of Genetics & Molecular Medicine (Midlothian)
Co-applicants: 
Dr. Neil Clark
Title of project: 
Variants trait-causal via their effect on VDR binding
Proposal summary: 

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) do not pinpoint the disease-causal variant, and genomics experiments do not pinpoint which molecular events influence disease risk. What is needed are methods that combine GWAS and functional genomics to infer disease risk-altering causal variants. We aim to identify the variants that have a causal effect on trait via their effect on the binding of the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR). Two-sample Mendelian randomization is limited by unobserved pleiotropic effects of candidate variants which may explain trait effects independently of VDR binding. This project addresses this problem by adding the cis-acting DNA variants that explain Vitamin D (25OHD) Serum level in specific tissues to the model. This allows us to infer variants that are causal for physiological/disease trait variation via their effect on VDR binding.

Impact of research: 
Our research addresses a central problem in genetic epidemiology - the pleiotropic bias of the inferred causal effects. Separating the causal from the pleiotropic effects will allow us to identify variants that are causal via their effect on the binding of the Vitamin D Receptor. Identifying the causal effects at individual loci will reveal causal effects of Vitamin D that may be lost in studies examining the overall level of Vitamin D. Furthermore, our estimates of the size and direction of the causal effects may facilitate a translation into genotype and trait dependent therapeutic role for Vitamin D supplementation.
Date proposal received: 
Friday, 27 September, 2019
Date proposal approved: 
Friday, 27 September, 2019
Keywords: 
Genetic epidemiology (including association studies and mendelian randomisation), This project is trait agnostic but aims to test any traits that overlap with UK-Biobank as we aim to compare the summarised results with the aim of replication of our analysis results., Computer simulations/modelling/algorithms, Statistical methods, Genetic epidemiology, Genetics, Genomics, Genome wide association study, Mendelian randomisation