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Reposted by Eimear Kenny

Konrad @konradjk.bsky.social · 20d

A project many years in the process, we’re pleased to present our work on multi-ancestry meta-analysis across a boatload of traits in the UK Biobank: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pan-UK Biobank genome-wide association analyses enhance discovery and resolution of ancestry-enriched effects - Nature Genetics

Genome-wide analyses for 7,266 traits leveraging data from several genetic ancestry groups in UK Biobank identify new associations and enhance resources for interpreting risk variants across diverse p...

www.nature.com

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · 21d

@bpasaniuc.bsky.social might win the best title at #CSPrecisionGen25

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · 21d

#CSPeecisionGen25

Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · 21d

Honored to give the opening talk at the inaugural Cell Sumposium for precision genomics for human health in San Diego #CSprecision25

Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · 21d

Honored to give the opening talk at the inaugural Cell Sumposium for precision genomics for human health in San Diego #CSprecision25

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jul 9

Thank you for coming to the meeting and for your great talk!

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

We’re excited to share this work and hope it proves useful across GWAS, PRS, heritability, and environmental confounding studies.

Massive congratulations to @RoohyShemirani and our whole team for seeing this through.

Feedback and collaborations welcome! 🧵👇

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

Method is open-source & scalable 🚀
➡️ Python package: github.com/roohy/spc
➡️ Simulation framework: github.com/roohy/msprim...

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GitHub - roohy/spc: Scripts for Spectral IBD Component Calculation

Scripts for Spectral IBD Component Calculation. Contribute to roohy/spc development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

Why does this matter?
As we move into diverse biobanks and rare variant discovery, we will need more methods. SPCs offer a modern toolkit for accurate, scalable correction of recent demographic structure.

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

Environmental confounding?
SPCs dramatically improved adjustment:
📉 Reduced Moran’s I more than PCs
📊 Avoided false heritability from geography
🧬 Preserved signal from true polygenic traits

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

Rare variant GWAS?
In UKBB inflation factor dropped from 7.6 (PCs) to 1.2 (SPCs) — helpful for uncovering real associations instead of noise.

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

In simulations, SPCs captured >90% of fine-scale population structure with fewer components than PCs, which explained <50%.

In GWAS of environmental phenotypes, SPCs reduced genomic inflation by 12%, while matching PC performance for highly heritable traits like height.

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

SPCs offer a novel solution:
✔️ Based on IBD graphs, not allele frequencies
✔️ Transforms local IBD sharing into continuous covariates using graph spectral theory
✔️ Works out-of-the-box with large datasets (tested on N ≈ 420K from UK Biobank)

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

Population structure is a major confounder in GWAS and heritability estimation.
Principal Components (PCs) have been the default — but they fall short for recent, non-linear, fine-scale structure, especially in rare variant analyses.

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 17

📢 Just posted: Our preprint introducing SPC — Spectral Components — is now live on medRxiv!

Led by Dr. Ruhollah Shemirani and years in the making, this method offers a robust, scalable way to adjust for recent population structure in genomic analyses.
🔗 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

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SPC: a SPectral Component approach to address recent population structure in genomic analysis

Population structure is a well-known confounder in statistical genetics, particularly in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), where it can lead to inflated test statistics and spurious associations...

www.medrxiv.org

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Jun 14

Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear this. Condolences to his family and friends.

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · May 1

A conclave of scientist ..

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · May 1

Very enjoyable visit to the Broad Clinical Lab in Burlington yesterday and a tour of their world class sequencing and omics facility 🧬. Really impressive.

And some really beautiful art work too…

Thanks @heidirehm.bsky.social and Niall Lennon for hosting.

#BlueSkyDrive #Broadies

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · May 1

A conclave of scientist ..

Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · May 1

Very enjoyable visit to the Broad Clinical Lab in Burlington yesterday and a tour of their world class sequencing and omics facility 🧬. Really impressive.

And some really beautiful art work too…

Thanks @heidirehm.bsky.social and Niall Lennon for hosting.

#BlueSkyDrive #Broadies

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Reposted by Eimear Kenny

Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · Apr 19

Incredible GRC Genetics and Genomics conference line-up this year in Portland, Maine (www.grc.org/human-geneti...). With conference-maxxing sessions that run to 9:30pm!

Submission deadline is June 8th, conference July 6-11th.

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Mar 14

Thanks Sarah! 💛

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Mar 13

Thank Simone!!! 💛

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Mar 12

Thanks Joe! 💛

Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Mar 12

Honored to be featured in ASHG’s #WomensHistoryMonth celebration! Huge thanks to @GeneticsSociety & @sarahtishkoff.bsky.social for the recognition.

Grateful to stand alongside incredible women shaping human genetics & genomics! 💙 #ASHG #WomenInSTEM

www.ashg.org/publications...

Celebrating Women's History Month: Trailblazing Women in Human Genetics and Genomics

ASHG President Sarah Tishkoff, PhD, celebrates women past and present who blaze trails in the human genetics and genomics field.

www.ashg.org

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Eimear Kenny @eimearekenny.bsky.social · Mar 4

🌍 Hillerød, Denmark from May 19-23, 2025,

🚨 Abstract submission closes March 15, 2025—still a few spots left! Submit yours here: sciencecluster.dk/event/genomic-mechanisms-of-disease-2025

Conference: Genomic Mechanisms of Disease - Science Cluster

sciencecluster.dk