“中国人民大学国际统计论坛”创办于2004年，致力于搭建统计学界高层次的学术交流平台，已成为中国最有影响力的统计学论坛之一。

2023年7月14日至15日，本届论坛将邀请5位主题报告人和6位特邀报告人，本次介绍特邀报告人张和平，预祝第九届中国人民大学国际统计论坛取得圆满成功！

张和平

Title

Genetic Studies of Human Brain Imaging Data

Abstract

As an essential part of the central nervous system, white matter coordinates communications between different brain regions and is related to a wide range of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered loci associated with white matter microstructure. However, GWAS suffer from limited reproducibility and difficulties in detecting multi-single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and epistatic effects. In this study, we adopt the concept of super-variants, a combination of alleles in multiple loci, to account for potential multi-SNP effects. We perform super-variant identification and validation for brain connectivity data and white matter fractional anisotropy phenotypes derived from diffusion tensor imaging. To increase reproducibility, we use several data sources. Our identified replicable super-variants contain genetic variants located in genes that have been related to brain structures, cognitive functions, and neuropsychiatric diseases. Our findings provide a better understanding of the genetic architecture underlying white matter microstructure.

This is a joint work with Shiying Wang, Wei Dai, Ting Li, Bingxin Zhao and Hongtu Zhu.

Biography

Heping Zhang is Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics, Professor of Child Study, and Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Yale University. He has published over 370 research articles and monographs in theory, methodology, and applications of statistics. He is particularly interested in biomedical research including epidemiology, genetics, child and women health, mental health, and substance use. He directs the Collaborative Center for Statistics in Science that coordinates major national research networks to understand the etiology of pregnancy outcomes and to evaluate treatment effectiveness for infertility. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He was named the 2008 Myrto Lefokopoulou distinguished lecturer by Harvard School of Public Health and a 2011 Medallion Award and Lecture and the 2022 Neyman Award and Lecture by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Dr. Zhang was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Statistics and Its Interface and is the past coordinate Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association.