Join us in this research seminar to explore the importance of family-based sampling for biobanks.
Biobanks aim to improve our understanding of health and disease by collecting and analysing diverse biological and phenotypic information in large samples. So far, biobanks have largely pursued a population-based sampling strategy, where the individual is the unit of sampling, and familial relatedness occurs sporadically and by chance. This strategy has been remarkably efficient and successful, leading to thousands of scientific discoveries across multiple research domains, and plans for the next wave of biobanks are underway. In this talk, I discuss the strengths and limitations of a complementary sampling strategy for future biobanks based on oversampling of close genetic relatives. Such family-based samples facilitate research that clarifies causal relationships between putative risk factors and outcomes, particularly in estimates of genetic effects, because they enable analyses that reduce or eliminate confounding due to familial and demographic factors. Family-based biobank samples would also shed new light on fundamental questions across multiple fields that are often difficult to explore in population-based samples. Despite the potential for higher costs and greater analytical complexity, the many advantages of family-based samples should often outweigh their potential challenges. I will conclude with an overview of the next generation of studies and how we could design them to maximise the number of related individuals.
The seminar will commence at 1pm. A light lunch will be served from 12.30pm.
Meet our speaker and chair
Neil Davies is a professor of medical statistics at the Division of Psychiatry and Department of Statistical Science, UCL. His research aims to improve the use of observational data for causal inference using natural experiments encoded in our genetics and administrative data.
Emilie Courtin is Assistant Professor of Health Policy. She co-directs the MSc Health Policy, Planning and Financing (HPPF) programme. Her research combines social epidemiology and social policy to assess how non-medical policies influence health, disease and health care use.
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This event is part of the social to biological interdisciplinary seminar series, hosted across LSE Health, Oxford, UCL and Imperial. The aim of the seminar is to promote interdisciplinary research across social and biological sciences to advance our understanding of the drivers of health and ageing across the life course. For more information about future events and to be added to our mailing list, please contact Emilie Courtin.
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