Introduction to the statistical analysis of genome-wide association studies

/ Ferrara, Italy

This short course is being organised and run by LongITools partner, the University of Surrey. An online version will run from 22nd to 26th January 2024, and an in person edition will run from 24th to 28th June 2024 in Ferrara, Italy.

Since 2016, this course has had nine editions and has trained over 450 scientists from around the globe.

Online, January 2024

Course Dates: 22nd – 26th January 2024

Course Location: Online live/Distance Learning

Course Leader: Prof Inga Prokopenko

Course Lecturers: Prof Reedik Mägi – course co-leader (Estonia), Prof Krista Fischer (Estonia), Prof Andrew Morris (UK), Prof Inga Prokopenko (UK), Dr Ayse Demirkan (UK), Dr Zhanna Balkhiyarova (UK)

Attendance fee: (pound sterling) £570 academic /£770 non-academic rate covering the course registration fee for full-time 5-day teaching and access to the course materials/registration after the course.

Deadline for applications: Friday 5 January 2024 at 23.59 (GMT). Deadline for late applications Thursday 12 January 2023. Late applications will be considered with £200 increase in fees.

Fellowships: A limited number of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) -funded scholarships are available for young scientists in training from European countries. Preference will be given to ESHG members and researchers from countries which are disadvantaged economically, although scholarships are not limited to these groups. Scholarships will cover the full attendance fee only. Deadline for Fellowship applications: Friday 22 December 2023 at 23.59 (GMT).

Late fee application deadline: 15 January 2024 at 23.59 (GMT)

More information and how to apply for the online course is available on the University of Surrey website. 

In person, June 2024

Dates: 24-28 June 2024

Venue: Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Early fee application deadline: 06 May 2024 at 23.59 (GMT)

Closing date for scholarship applications: 06 May 2024 at 23.59 (GMT)

Late fee application deadline: 31 May 2024 at 23.59 (GMT)

Course content: This course will enable you to analyse large-scale genetic data using standard analytical approaches and freely available software tools. The course will cover statistical background for association studies; primer on scripting in the most frequently used computational environments, design and analysis of such studies, interpretation of the results. Each topic will be covered by a lecture, followed by a practical exercise, which will include use of the state-of-art software tools and example datasets. Practical exercises will be tailored to illustrate the ideas discussed during lectures and will be accompanied by discussion of the results.

Topics covered:

  • Introduction to statistics for geneticists
  • Introduction to Linux and R
  • Genome-wise association studies (GWAS)
  • Quality Control (QC) for GWAS
  • Association analysis
  • Population structure
  • Imputation of GWAS
  • Meta-analysis of GWAS
  • Analysis of rare variants
  • Genetic risk scores (polygenic risk scores)
  • Mendelian Randomization
  • Fine-mapping and functional follow-up of GWAS

Two guest lectures will be given by renowned scientists in the field of human genetics.

More information and how to apply for the in-person course is available on the University of Surrey website.