报告题目：A systems biology approach to the genetic study of alcohol dependence
报告人：韩士忠Assistant Professor (Tenure Track)
时 间：2016年3月11日（星期五）下午2:00
地 点：杏林会议室（1412）
报告摘要：Alcohol dependence (AD), one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, is a chronic and recurrent psychiatric illness. Family studies have established a genetic contribution to AD susceptibility. Variations in hundreds of genes likely contribute to the etiology of AD, with each variant conferring only a small increase in risk. Although numerous genes may contribute to the etiology of complex traits, they tend to fall into a smaller number of biological pathways. Studies leveraging functional relationships of genes may increase the power of gene discovery for complex traits including AD. We will present a systems biology approach to identifying gene pathways and networks underlying AD. Specifically, we will integrate genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with protein-protein interaction networks and gene co-expression networks of AD-related brain regions to enhance the likelihood of identifying functionally related risk genes. We identified gene subnetworks that were not only enriched for small p-value genes, but were also enriched for genes related to synaptic transmission in the brain. We will finally discuss strategies to prioritize candidate genes from identified networks for follow-up.
报告人简介：韩士忠，现任美国爱荷华大学医学院助理教授（Tenure Track）。2001年毕业于烟台大学，2006年获得复旦大学遗传学博士学位。2006年赴美国学习工作，先后在奥克拉荷马大学（2006-2008）以及耶鲁大学医学院（2008-2012）从事博士后研究工作。多年来一直致力于人类复杂疾病的易感基因定位研究，现主持美国NIH-R01重大专项基金一项，以及参与多项NIH基金资助的课题研究。相关成果在国际著名期刊杂志（如Nature Genetics, American Journal of Human Genetics, Genetics）发表。