CBDS Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series: “Machine Learning for Human Genetics: A Multi-Scale View on Complex Traits and Disease” by Dr. Lorin Crawford, Assistant Professor, Brown University and Microsoft Research

A common goal in genome-wide association (GWA) studies is to characterize the relationship between genotypic and phenotypic variation. Linear models are widely used tools in GWA analyses, in part, because they provide significance measures which detail how individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are statistically associated with a trait or disease of interest. However, traditional linear regression largely ignores non-additive genetic variation, and the univariate SNP-level mapping approach has been shown to be underpowered and challenging to interpret for certain trait architectures. While machine learning (ML) methods such as neural networks are well known to account for complex data structures, these same algorithms have also been criticized as “black box” since they do not naturally carry out statistical hypothesis testing like classic linear models. This limitation has prevented ML approaches from being used for association mapping tasks in GWA applications. In this talk, we present flexible and scalable classes of Bayesian feedforward models which provide interpretable probabilistic summaries such as posterior inclusion probabilities and credible sets which allows researchers to simultaneously perform (i) fine-mapping with SNPs and (ii) enrichment analyses with SNP-sets on complex traits. While analyzing real data assayed in diverse self-identified human ancestries from the UK Biobank, the Biobank Japan, and the PAGE consortium we demonstrate that interpretable ML has the power to increase the return on investment in multi-ancestry biobanks. Furthermore, we highlight that by prioritizing biological mechanism we can identify associations that are robust across ancestries---suggesting that ML can play a key role in making personalized medicine a reality for all.

Dr. Lorin Crawford is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research New England. He also holds a position as the RGSS Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at Brown University. His scientific research interests involve the development of novel and efficient computational methodologies to address complex problems in statistical genetics, cancer pharmacology, and radiomics (e.g., cancer imaging). Dr. Crawford has an extensive background in modeling massive data sets of high-throughput molecular information as it pertains to functional genomics and cellular-based biological processes. His most recent work has earned him a place on Forbes 30 Under 30 list, The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans list, and recognition as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a David & Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering.

Before joining Brown, Dr. Crawford received his PhD from the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Clark Atlanta University.