Biostatistics and Inference on High-Dimensional Omics Data -- Brooke Fridley (U. Kansas)

Brooke Fridley has extensive expertise in high-dimensional statistical genetics and is devoting her efforts as Director of The Biostatistics and Informatics Shared Resource at The University of Kansas Cancer Center to development of methods for data integration, including Bayesian methods, molecular clustering and gene set analysis approaches.  Pharmacogenomics is a topical focal point of her recent work.   Brooke has recently authored a number of important methodologic reports on (a few for gene set analysis are referenced below) and published pertinent software packages.  Methods papers outlining Brooke's approach may be accessed at the links below:

• Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. (2012)
• Genet Epidemiol. (2012)
• Stat Appl Genet Mol Biol. (2013)
• OMICS (2014) 

The current collaboration is the first for John Paul and Brooke.

Biostatistics & Enrichment Analysis -- Phil Hyoun Lee @ Harvard

Phil Hyoun Lee has extensive expertise in computational genetics and is the creator of INRICH, a pathway analysis tool for genome wide association studies that was designed for detecting enriched association signals of LD-independent genomic regions within biologically relevant gene sets. Phil holds a faculty appointment in the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the Center for Human Genetic Research at Massachusetts General Hospital.  She has been a central contributor to a number of reports published by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium on SZ and the consequences of dysregulated dopamine signaling. 

• Bioinformatics (July 2012)
• Nature (2014)
• Nature Neuroscience (February 2015 -- with Neel Parikshak)

John Paul and Phil have collaborated closely on two systems-based projects leading to two publications.   One of these publications focused on the the NTN1-DCC, an interest of team member Cecilia Flores.  Phil has published on systems neuroscience with team member Neel Parikshak.

   

Bioinformatics of the Regulome -- Lucas Ward @ Amgen

Luke Ward has extensive expertise in analysis and annotation of regulatory elements within the genome.  He has developed the HaploReg platform as an interface for efficient SNP annotation and causal inference.

Luke has published a number of major works on the regulome.

• Science (September 2012)
• Nature Biotechnology (November 2012) 
• Nucleic Acids Research (January 2012)

Over the past 3 years John Paul and Luke have been collaborating on a GWAS-based annotation project proposed by John Paul.

Developmental Neurobiology -- Cecilia Flores @ McGill

Cecilia Flores is an expert on the devleopmental neurobiology of a family of neural guidance molecules, the netrins and their receptors.  She has extensive experience in applying multidisciplinary approaches for examining the role of these molecules as modulators of dopmaine signaling system structure and function at the micro-environmental (genes, molecules, gene products acting as constituents of signaling pathways), brain systems (cells, cell-cell complexes, cellular networks), and external environmental (Rx exposure) levels.  Much of Cecilia's work has answered key questions on resilience and vulnerability (involving brain development and in neuroplasticity in the adult brain brought about by exposure to stimulant drugs).  Research projects at the The Flores Laboratory are focused on neurodevelopmental studies, resilience, drugs and adolescent development, and adult plasticity.

John Paul and Cecilia have been in contact since the summer of 2015 regarding a collaboration on their aligned reseach interest in the NTN1-DCC-UNC5 axis in dopamine signaling. 

Systems Neuroscience -- Barry Aprison @ Conte Center

Barry Aprison is the Core A leader at the The Conte Center for Computational Neuropsychiatric Genomics. He has expertise in developmental genetics, molecular evolution, genomics, and systems biology.

John Paul first met Barry at the NIH in the spring of 2013 -- he toured parts of the Conte facility in the fall of 2014.  John Paul has been in correspondence with Barry  regarding the potentional for collaboration with faculty specializing in biostatistics and dopamine signaling.   

Systems Neuroscience -- Neelroop Parikshak @ UCLA

Neelroop Parikshak is developing methods for analysis and causative inference in systems neuroscience.   John Paul and Neelroop first met at UCLA in spring of 2015 to discuss Neelroop's integrative systems neuroscience methods.  Neel recently has published a number of reports outlining the novel approach. 

•  Nature Reviews Genetics (August 2015) 
• Cell (November, 2013)