Article
Demography
Sasha Shen Johfre, Aliya Saperstein, Jill A. Hollenbach
Summary: The rise of genetic ancestry tests (GATs) is changing how Americans respond to questions about race and ancestry by increasing the likelihood of self-identification as multiracial, especially selecting three or more races. This increase in multiracial reporting among GAT takers is influenced by factors such as higher likelihood of identifying as multiracial, reporting multiple regions of ancestral origin, and translating ancestral diversity into multiracial self-identification. The meaning of race data in the U.S. may be evolving as more Americans are exposed to GAT information.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Marta Diepenbroek, Christina Amory, Harald Niederstatter, Bettina Zimmermann, Maria Szargut, Grazyna Zielinska, Arne Dur, Iwona Teul, Wojciech Mazurek, Krzysztof Persak, Andrzej Ossowski, Walther Parson
Summary: The skeletal remains discovered in Sobibor, Poland were initially thought to be Polish victims of totalitarian regimes, but genetic analyses showed they were Ashkenazi Jews murdered by the Nazi regime. In accordance with Jewish tradition, the remains were reburied at the discovery site in the presence of a Rabbi.
Editorial Material
Genetics & Heredity
Elizabeth G. Atkinson
Summary: A new study suggests that the correlation of causal genetic variants is largely similar across different ancestry backgrounds, as estimated using admixture.
Editorial Material
Oncology
Cathy Eng, Andreana N. Holowatyj
Summary: Understanding the molecular features of colorectal cancer in different populations is crucial in reducing the disparities in disease burden. Research shows that individuals of African ancestry have a higher frequency of KRAS, AOC, and PIK3CA mutations, suggesting that specific treatment and clinical trials should be considered for these mutations in African patients.
Article
Oncology
Esther Forkosh, Michael Bergel, Kathryn E. Hatchell, Sarah M. Nielsen, Brandie Heald, Ariel A. Benson, Eitan Friedman, Edward D. Esplin, Lior H. Katz
Summary: This study investigates the prevalence of APC I1307K variant in Ashkenazi Jews and non-Ashkenazi Jewish white populations and assesses the risk of colorectal cancer and other cancers among carriers of this variant. The results show that non-Ashkenazi Jewish white individuals have a higher risk of various cancers, while Ashkenazi Jewish men are at a higher risk of cancer and melanoma.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Andrew B. Conley, Lavanya Rishishwar, Maria Ahmad, Shivam Sharma, Emily T. Norris, I. King Jordan, Leonardo Marino-Ramirez
Summary: Biobank projects generate genomic data for thousands of individuals, requiring computational methods such as genetic ancestry inference tools. Current methods do not scale to biobank-sized datasets. The Rye algorithm was developed for scalable genetic ancestry inference, outperforming existing programs in accuracy and runtime performance on a dataset from the UK Biobank. Rye utilizes principal component analysis and optimization techniques to estimate genetic ancestry at both continental and subcontinental levels.
NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Xianda Liu, Wenxuan Hou, Brian G. M. Main
Summary: This paper examines the impact of anti-market culture on a firm's environmental and social outcomes. Taking the varying degree of historical anti-Jewish pogroms as a measure of anti-market sentiment, the study finds that this sentiment continues to influence present-day firms' performance, especially for those with better corporate governance.
JOURNAL OF CORPORATE FINANCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yi Ding, Kangcheng Hou, Ziqi Xu, Aditya Pimplaskar, Ella Petter, Kristin Boulier, Florian Prive, Bjarni J. Vilhjalmsson, Loes M. Olde Loohuis, Bogdan Pasaniuc
Summary: Polygenic scores (PGSs) have limited portability across different groupings of individuals, hindering their equitable use. We demonstrated that PGS accuracy decreases individual-to-individual along the continuum of genetic ancestries, even within traditionally labelled 'homogeneous' genetic ancestries. Our results highlight the need to move away from discrete genetic ancestry clusters towards the continuum of genetic ancestries when considering PGSs.
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Rex L. Chisholm
Summary: The use of race and ethnicity in medicine is contentious due to the imprecision of these social constructs as proxies for ancestry. Belbin et al. present an interesting framework for characterizing population substructure in diverse urban environments.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
C. Hsu, Wei Yang, Rishi V. Parikh, Amanda H. Anderson, Teresa K. Chen, Debbie L. Cohen, Jiang He, Madhumita J. Mohanty, James P. Lash, Katherine T. Mills, Anthony N. Muiru, Afshin Parsa, Milda R. Saunders, Tariq Shafi, Raymond R. Townsend, Sushrut S. Waikar, J. Wang, Myles Wolf, Thida C. Tan, Harold I. Feldman, Alan S. Go
Summary: The study found that using serum creatinine levels to estimate GFR without taking race (or genetic ancestry) into account led to systematic misclassification. Estimating GFR with cystatin C produced similar results while eliminating negative consequences of race-based approaches.
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Vikas Kumar, E. Andrew Bennett, Dongyue Zhao, Yun Liang, Yunpeng Tang, Meng Ren, Qinyan Dai, Xiaotian Feng, Peng Cao, Ruowei Yang, Feng Liu, Wanjing Ping, Ming Zhang, Manyu Ding, Melinda A. Yang, Berdimurodov Amridin, Hasanov Muttalib, Jianxin Wang, Qiaomei Fu
Summary: Despite the continuation of Bronze Age ancestry into the Iron Age in Uzbekistan, individuals from the Iron Age show diverse ancestries related to Iranian farmers, Anatolian farmers, and Steppe herders, along with a small amount of West European Hunter Gatherer, East Asian, and South Asian Hunter Gatherer ancestry. An increase in Anatolian farmer-like ancestry and a decrease in Iranian farmer-like ancestry were observed in Uzbekistan Iron Age individuals compared to BMAC populations from Uzbekistan, indicating increased admixture played a significant role in the transition from Bronze to Iron Age. This mixed ancestry is also observed in other parts of the Steppe and Central Asia, suggesting widespread admixture among local populations.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biology
Elise K. Burton
Summary: This article examines how population geneticists responded to shifting claims about Ashkenazi identity and ancestry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and explores how these claims affected the assumptions of population genetic research on Jewish populations and other groups.
JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Hsin-Chou Yang, Chia-Wei Chen, Yu-Ting Lin, Shih-Kai Chu
Summary: Recent studies have emphasized the important role of genetic ancestry in population pharmacogenetics, with ancestry-informative markers found to be enriched in pharmacogenetic loci. It is crucial to carefully consider cross-ancestry differentiation in population pharmacogenetics studies. Ancestry-informative pharmacogenetic loci are distributed in both protein-coding and non-protein-coding regions, highlighting the necessity of whole-genome analysis for unbiased examination of pharmacogenetic loci.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Oncology
Meghana S. Pagadala, Joshua A. Linscott, James V. Talwar, Tyler M. Seibert, Brent Rose, Julie Lynch, Matthew Panizzon, Richard Hauger, Moritz H. Hansen, Jesse D. Sammon, Matthew H. Hayn, Karim Kader, Hannah Carter, Stephen T. Ryan
Summary: This study aimed to construct an African ancestry-specific polygenic risk score (PRS) for prostate cancer (PrCa) prediction and evaluate its performance. The researchers identified African ancestry-specific PrCa risk loci and constructed a PRS. The PRS showed good performance in predicting PrCa in African ancestry groups and could be used in future studies.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jiacheng Miao, Hanmin Guo, Gefei Song, Zijie Zhao, Lin Hou, Qiongshi Lu
Summary: X-Wing is a statistical framework that improves the predictive performance of polygenic risk scores in ancestrally diverse populations.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Eran Elhaik, Desmond M. Ryan
Meeting Abstract
Hematology
Linda B. Baughn, Zhou Li, Kathryn E. Pearce, Celine M. Vachon, Mei-Yin Polley, Jonathan J. Keats, Eran Elhaik, Michael L. Baird, Terry Therneau, James R. Cerhan, P. Leif Bergsagel, Angela Dispenzieri, Vincent Rajkumar, Yan Asmann, Shaji K. Kumar
Letter
Oncology
Linda B. Baughn, Zhuo Li, Kathryn Pearce, Celine M. Vachon, Mei-Yin Polley, Jonathan Keats, Eran Elhaik, Michael Baird, Terry Therneau, James R. Cerhan, P. Leif Bergsagel, Angela Dispenzieri, S. Vincent Rajkumar, Yan W. Asmann, Shaji Kumar
BLOOD CANCER JOURNAL
(2020)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Linda B. Baughn, Neeraj Sharma, Eran Elhaik, Aleksandar Sekulic, Alan H. Bryce, Rafael Fonseca
MAYO CLINIC PROCEEDINGS
(2020)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Kern Rei Chng, Chenhao Li, Denis Bertrand, Amanda Hui Qi Ng, Junmei Samantha Kwah, Hwee Meng Low, Chengxuan Tong, Maanasa Natrajan, Michael Hongjie Zhang, Licheng Xu, Karrie Kwan Ki Ko, Eliza Xin Pei Ho, Tamar Av-Shalom, Jeanette Woon Pei Teo, Chiea Chuen Khor, Swaine L. Chen, Christopher E. Mason, Oon Tek Ng, Kalisvar Marimuthu, Brenda Ang, Niranjan Nagarajan, David Danko, Daniela Bezdan, Ebrahim Afshinnekoo, Sofia Ahsanuddin, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Daniel J. Butler, Francesca De Filippis, Jochen Hecht, Andre Kahles, Mikhail Karasikov, Nikos C. Kyrpides, Marcus H. Y. Leung, Dmitry Meleshko, Harun Mustafa, Beth Mutai, Russell Y. Neches, Amanda Ng, Marina Nieto-Caballero, Olga Nikolayeva, Tatyana Nikolayeva, Eileen Png, Jorge L. Sanchez, Heba Shaaban, Maria A. Sierra, Xinzhao Tong, Ben Young, Josue Alicea, Malay Bhattacharyya, Ran Blekhman, Eduardo Castro-Nallar, Ana M. Canas, Aspassia D. Chatziefthimiou, Robert W. Crawford, Youping Deng, Christelle Desnues, Emmanuel Dias-Neto, Daisy Donnellan, Marius Dybwad, Eran Elhaik, Danilo Ercolini, Alina Frolova, Alexandra B. Graf, David C. Green, Iman Hajirasouliha, Mark Hernandez, Gregorio Iraola, Soojin Jang, Angela Jones, Frank J. Kelly, Kaymisha Knights, Pawel P. Labaj, Patrick K. H. Lee, Levy Shawn, Per Ljungdahl, Abigail Lyons, Gabriella Mason-Buck, Ken McGrath, Emmanuel F. Mongodin, Milton Ozorio Moraes, Houtan Noushmehr, Manuela Oliveira, Stephan Ossowski, Olayinka O. Osuolale, Orhan Ozcan, David Paez-Espino, Nicolas Rascovan, Hugues Richard, Gunnar Raetsch, Lynn M. Schriml, Torsten Semmler, Osman U. Sezerman, Leming Shi, Le Huu Song, Haruo Suzuki, Denise Syndercombe Court, Dominique Thomas, Scott W. Tighe, Klas Udekwu, Juan A. Ugalde, Brandon Valentine, Dimitar Vassilev, Elena Vayndorf, Thirumalaisamy P. Velavan, Maria M. Zambrano, Jifeng Zhu, Sibo Zhu
Review
Microbiology
Jake M. Robinson, Zohar Pasternak, Christopher E. Mason, Eran Elhaik
Summary: The rise of microbiomics and metagenomics in forensic investigations is driven by advances in technology and methods, offering great potential, yet facing challenges such as limited sample sizes, low model accuracies, and overly idealized environmental settings.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Emma B. Johannsen, Linda B. Baughn, Neeraj Sharma, Nicolina Zjacic, Mehdi Pirooznia, Eran Elhaik
Summary: SIDS is a syndrome of unexplained sudden death in infants under one year old, with genetic studies showing uncertainty and limited supporting evidence for candidate genes.
Review
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Hannah Carress, Daniel John Lawson, Eran Elhaik
Summary: The over-representation of Europeans in genomic studies restricts global understanding of disease risk and inhibits research into genomic differences between carriers and patients. To address this, more diverse samples are needed, with diversity quantified, compared and annotated for insight.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Eran Elhaik, Dan Graur
Summary: Soft selective sweep mechanisms have gained significant importance in evolutionary studies, but caution should be taken when interpreting results involving the use of supervised machine learning techniques due to the lack of legitimate training datasets, potentially leading to misleading conclusions.
Article
Microbiology
Eran Elhaik, Sofia Ahsanuddin, Jake M. Robinson, Emily M. Foster, Christopher E. Mason
Summary: Advancements in metagenomic technology and computational prediction have the potential to weaken individual privacy rights by allowing the inference of personal details from microbiome data. There is a need for thorough ethical and legal scrutiny to ensure the protection of genetic privacy rights in the face of these developments.
Article
Cell Biology
Helen Eachus, Lara Oberski, Jack Paveley, Irina Bacila, John-Paul Ashton, Umberto Esposito, Fayaz Seifuddin, Mehdi Pirooznia, Eran Elhaik, Marysia Placzek, Nils P. Krone, Vincent T. Cunliffe
Summary: This article investigates glucocorticoid resistance commonly observed in depression, which has been linked to reduced expression and/or function of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). By comparing the brain methylomes and transcriptomes of wild-type and GR-mutant zebrafish, the authors identify 249 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) regulated by GR. They also find GR-regulated genes associated with chaperone-mediated protein folding, circadian rhythm regulation, metabolism regulation, and behavior, which are known to be related to unipolar depression and anxiety. The findings provide insights into the molecular mechanisms through which GR mediates stress responses in the adult zebrafish brain and support the use of the zebrafish GR mutant as a model for studying affective disorders.
DISEASE MODELS & MECHANISMS
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Sara Behnamian, Umberto Esposito, Grace Holland, Ghadeer Alshehab, Ann M. Dobre, Mehdi Pirooznia, Conrad S. Brimacombe, Eran Elhaik
Summary: Radiocarbon dating is commonly used in archaeology to estimate the age of skeletons, but it has limitations in providing reliable dates. Researchers developed a new DNA-based dating method called TPS and applied it to ancient and modern Eurasian samples, resolving conflicting reports and improving the study of phenotypic traits over time.
CELL REPORTS METHODS
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Laurence Freeman, Conrad Stephen Brimacombe, Eran Elhaik
NAR GENOMICS AND BIOINFORMATICS
(2020)
Meeting Abstract
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
U. Esposito, G. Holland, E. Elhaik
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS
(2019)
Meeting Abstract
Hematology
Linda B. Baughn, Dirk Larson, Mei-Yin Polley, Kathryn E. Pearce, Eran Elhaik, Michael L. Baird, Colin Colby, Joanne Benson, Zhou Li, Yan Asmann, Terry Therneau, James R. Cerhan, Celine M. Vachon, A. Keith Stewart, P. Leif Bergsagel, Angela Dispenzieri, Shaji K. Kumar, S. Vincent Rajkumar