STATISTICS COLLOQUIUM
Yize Zhao
Assistant Professor
Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Heath
Yale University
Genetic underpinnings of brain structural connectome for young adults
Abstract
With distinct advantages in power over behavioral phenotype, brain imaging traits have become emerging endophenotypes to dissect molecular contribution to behaviors and neuropsychiatric illness. Among different imaging features, brain structural connectivity (i.e. structural connectome) which summarizes whole brain anatomical neural connections is one of the most cutting edge while under-investigated traits; and the genetic influence on the shifts of structural connectivity remains highly elusive. Relying on a landmark imaging genetics study for young adults, we develop a biologically plausible brain network response shrinkage model to comprehensively characterize the relationship between high dimensional genetic variants and the structural connectcome phenotype. Under a unified Bayesian framework, we accommodate the topology of brain network and biological architecture within genome; and eventually establish a mechanistic mapping between genetic biomarkers and the associated brain sub-network units. An efficient expectation-maximization algorithm is developed to estimate the model parameters and ensure computing feasibility. We show the superiority of our method in extensive simulations. In the application to the Human Connectome Project. Young Adult (HCP-YA) data, we establish the genetic underpinnings which are highly interpretable under functional annotation and brain tissue eQTL analysis, for the brain white matter tract sub-networks concentrating on hippocampus and between hemispheres.
Bio: Dr. Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health and affiliated with Yale Center for Analytical Sciences. Her main research focuses on the development of statistical and machine learning methods to analyze large-scale complex data (imaging, -omics, EHRs), Bayesian methods, feature selection, predictive modeling, data integration, missing data and network analysis. She has strong interests in biomedical research areas including mental health, cancer and cardiovascular diseases, etc. Dr. Zhao received her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Emory University and postdoc training in Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to Yale, she was an Assistant Professor in Biostatistics at Cornell University, Weill Cornell Medicine.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021 4:00 p.m. EDT, 1-hour duration Join by meeting number | Meeting number (access code): 2623 570 8141 | Meeting password: MWcnq9Bch36 |
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For more information, contact: Tracy Burke at tracy.burke@uconn.edu