Wen Wang, United States of America

University of Minnesota Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Wen Wang is a research scientist in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. With her training in mathematics, computer science, and computational biology, Dr. Wang’s recent work focuses on developing novel computational methods to uncover how genes interact with each other to modify disease risk. Dr. Wang and her colleagues have developed the first method "BridGE" that can systematically discover genetic interactions from human genome-wide association study (GWAS). The BridGE method has been applied to many complex diseases. Its application to Breast Cancer won one of two grand prizes in the National Cancer Institute’s competition "Up For A Challenge (U4C)—Stimulating Innovation in Breast Cancer Genetic Epidemiology”.

Author Of 1 Presentation

SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF GENETIC INTERACTIONS IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE REVEALS INTERACTIONS WITH KNOWN RISK GENES

Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
14.03.2021, Sunday
Session Time
12:00 - 14:00
Room
On Demand Symposia C
Lecture Time
13:15 - 13:30
Session Icon
On-Demand

Abstract

Aims

Traditional approaches to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on Parkinson’s disease (PD) are based largely on single-locus tests, despite the genetic complexity of the disease. Genetic interactions refer to combinations of two or more genes whose contribution to a phenotype cannot be fully explained by their independent effects. Detecting genetic interactions systematically with statistical significance remains a major challenge due to the daunting number of variant combinations possible in the human genome.

Methods

We developed a method called BridGE for identifying genetic interactions between pathways from human population genetic data (Wang et al. 2017, Fang, Wang et al. 2019), which leverages the expected structure of genetic interactions revealed by large-scale interaction screens in model organisms. Here, we describe improvements to the BridGE method along with its application to two PD cohorts.

Results

We identified 20 between-pathway interactions (FDR<0.05) and 12 within-pathway interactions (FDR<0.1) associated with PD risk, with a large fraction (10 of 32) of the interactions replicating on an independent cohort (Fig.1). All replicating interactions are connected to the Parkinson’s Disease Gene Set and the Parkin Pathway.

pd_interaction.png

Conclusions

Many of the discovered pathways show clear relevance to PD (Fig.1). The majority of replicated interactions involved the known Parkinson’s disease risk genes, suggesting that many of the established risk variants are modified by variants in multiple, previously unappreciated distinct pathways. We expect further exploration of discovered interactions is likely to be fruitful for understanding the underlying genetic basis of PD.

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Presenter of 2 Presentations

SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF GENETIC INTERACTIONS IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE REVEALS INTERACTIONS WITH KNOWN RISK GENES

Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
14.03.2021, Sunday
Session Time
12:00 - 14:00
Room
On Demand Symposia C
Lecture Time
13:15 - 13:30
Session Icon
On-Demand

Abstract

Aims

Traditional approaches to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on Parkinson’s disease (PD) are based largely on single-locus tests, despite the genetic complexity of the disease. Genetic interactions refer to combinations of two or more genes whose contribution to a phenotype cannot be fully explained by their independent effects. Detecting genetic interactions systematically with statistical significance remains a major challenge due to the daunting number of variant combinations possible in the human genome.

Methods

We developed a method called BridGE for identifying genetic interactions between pathways from human population genetic data (Wang et al. 2017, Fang, Wang et al. 2019), which leverages the expected structure of genetic interactions revealed by large-scale interaction screens in model organisms. Here, we describe improvements to the BridGE method along with its application to two PD cohorts.

Results

We identified 20 between-pathway interactions (FDR<0.05) and 12 within-pathway interactions (FDR<0.1) associated with PD risk, with a large fraction (10 of 32) of the interactions replicating on an independent cohort (Fig.1). All replicating interactions are connected to the Parkinson’s Disease Gene Set and the Parkin Pathway.

pd_interaction.png

Conclusions

Many of the discovered pathways show clear relevance to PD (Fig.1). The majority of replicated interactions involved the known Parkinson’s disease risk genes, suggesting that many of the established risk variants are modified by variants in multiple, previously unappreciated distinct pathways. We expect further exploration of discovered interactions is likely to be fruitful for understanding the underlying genetic basis of PD.

Hide