SMARTbiomed statistical genetics symposium
Thursday, 08 January 2026, 9.30am to 5.30pm
Richard Doll Lecture Theatre Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive Oxford OX3 7LF
The SMARTbiomed Statistical Genetics Symposium is designed to bring together researchers from Denmark and Oxford who are working in the field of statistical/quantitative genetics.
Focusing on methodological advances, the event will provide an opportunity to share cutting-edge research being developed across the participating universities, while strengthening the network and collaboration among the various SMARTbiomed centres.
The symposium is open to all researchers from Oxford and Denmark. We encourage researchers to present their work and take part in this exciting moment of knowledge exchange.
The call for abstracts is open for both oral and poster presentations.
Please register by Wednesday 17th December
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08:15–09:00 |
Registration & Coffee |
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09:00 |
Session 1 - Introduction by Naomi Wray |
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09:10–09:45 |
Keynote: Jian Zeng, A Bayesian method to integrate GWAS with single-cell data and its application in psychiatric disorders |
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09:45–10:00 |
Yang Luo: Improving population-scale disease prediction through multi-omics integration |
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10:00–10:15
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Evan Irving-Pease, The evolutionary origins of autoimmune and infectious disease risks |
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10:15–10:22
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Hannah Kockelbergh, Defining genetic determinants of T-cell receptor repertoires at single-cell resolution |
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10:22–10:29
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Jennifer Astley, Single-cell eQTL mapping identifies cell type and context-specific genetic control of disease severity |
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10:30-11:00 |
Coffee break |
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11:00 |
Session 2 — Computational statistical genetics, Chair TBD |
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11:00–11:35 |
Keynote – Pier Palamara, |
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11:35–11:50 |
Jiazheng Zhu, Leveraging ancestral recombination graphs for scalable mixed-model analyses of complex quantitative traits |
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11:50–12:05 |
Shadi Zabad, Toward whole-genome inference of polygenic scores with fast and memory-efficient algorithms |
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12:05-12:20 |
Duncan Palmer, Deviations from genetic additivity driven by rare variants at biobank scale |
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12:20- 12:27 |
Yining Fan, Scalable genealogical association testing for binary traits using ancestral recombination graphs |
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12:27–12:34 |
Peter Sørensen, Privacy-Preserving Multivariate Bayesian Regression Models for Overcoming Data Sharing Barriers in Health and Genomics |
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12:35–13:30 |
Lunch |
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13:30 |
Session 3 - Complex Traits, Chair TBC |
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13:30–14:05
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Keynote: Andrew Shork, Psychiatric Genetic Epidemiology Using Familial and Molecular Genetic Score Profiles |
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14:05–14:20
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Elena Sabbioni, Estimating the Latent Dimensionality of Human Phenotypes via Factor Analysis |
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14:20–14:35
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Palle Duun Rohde, Accepted Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling of Genome-wide Polygenic Signals Improves Gene Prioritization |
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14:35–14:42 |
Lianyun Huang, Estimating Genetic Correlation using Posterior Variant Effect Samples |
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14:42–14:49
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Oliver Pain, Mind the Gap: Quantifying and Mitigating the Impact of Variant Missingness on Polygenic Scores |
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14:50-15:20 |
Coffee break |
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15:20 |
Session 4: Multi-ancestry, Chair TBD |
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15:20–15:35 |
Robin Walters, Adiposity, body shape, and risk of diabetes: Insights from genetic analyses in the China Kadoorie Biobank |
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15:35–15:50
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Xiaotong Wang, Multi-Ancestry Conditional and Joint Analysis (Manc-COJO) applied to GWAS Summary Statistics |
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15:50–15:57 |
Yong Wang, Speeding up the genetic analysis software |
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15:57–16:04
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Sarah Sarguroh, Identifying causal HLA variants that regulate protein abundance using data from two biobanks |
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16:05–16:40
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Keynote: Simon Myers, |
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16:40 |
Closing Panel / Wrap-up / Networking |