Beyond the Single SNP: Emerging Developments in Mendelian Randomization in the "Omics" Era

Marie-Jo A. Brion, Beben Benyamin, Peter M. Visscher, George Davey Smith
2014 Current Epidemiology Reports  
Mendelian randomization (MR) is an innovative epidemiological approach that uses genetic variants as proxies for environmental exposures to provide unbiased estimates of the causal effect of a risk factor on disease. The explosion in availability of high-throughput biological data has resulted in increasing numbers of MR studies, novel extensions to the traditional single-SNP MR approach, and the potential to incorporate new-generation biological "omics" data (such as genome-wide genotype data,
more » ... epigenetics, and metabolomic data). In this review, we discuss these new developments, ranging from the application of multiple genetic markers and the use of summary statistic data to MR approaches in the "omics" age. Progress in "omics" technologies has been touted as a means to revolutionize epidemiology, and the incorporation of "omics" data into MR to infer causality of potentially large numbers of novel biological markers represents one avenue in how this may be realized.
doi:10.1007/s40471-014-0024-2 fatcat:jfjrjlszzbfwvha6ltweg5xoh4