Seminars and Events
Development of a Multi-Ancestry Genetic Risk Score for Prostate Cancer
Event Details
Prostate cancer is a highly heritable disease with large disparities in incidence rates across ancestry populations. In this talk, I will present the latest multi-ancestry meta-analysis of prostate cancer genome-wide association studies and the construction of a genetic risk score (GRS). The latest GRS is associated with ~2.0 fold increase risk per standard deviation in men of European, African, and Asian ancestry and for Latino men. Importantly, the GRS is associated with a greater risk of aggressive versus non-aggressive disease in men of African ancestry. These findings support the role of germline variation contributing to population differences in prostate cancer risk, with the GRS offering a tool for potential risk stratification. Throughout the talk, I will highlight the methodological issues and the novel statistical approaches developed to construct genetic risk scores that are effective in multiple ancestry groups and for admixed individuals. I will also discuss current ongoing methodological extensions.
Host: Michael Pazzani, Principal Scientist
To promote discussion, we have arranged a lunch after our Artificial Intelligence Research for Health Seminar: Monday, September 25, 2023, 11:00am – 12:00pm PDT.
Sign up for in-person attendance and lunch here.
The AI Research for Health seminar features AI and health researchers presenting their research on AI and Data Science with an impact on human health. The goal is to foster new collaborations among researchers in these fields. The talks will be live at The USC-Information Science Institute in Marina Del Rey (room 1135/1137) and on zoom.
We have also received inquiries about attending in person if you are not affiliated with ISI. This requires checking in with reception on the 10th-floor where you will be directed to the 11th floor conference room. We will also validate parking.
Students and postdocs are welcome. There is a shuttle from campus: Marina del Rey Shuttle – USC Transportation
Register for zoom by clicking here: Webinar Registration – Zoom
Speaker Bio
David Conti is a professor of Population and Public Health Sciences in the Division of Biostatistics, the Associate Director for Data Science integration for the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Chair in Cancer Prevention. His research focuses on applied genetic epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, and statistical methods development focused on the integration of omic data and biological knowledge in epidemiologic analysis. As part of a NCI funded program project within the USC Division of Biostatistics, he is project PI for the development of statistical approaches for the integration of multiple omics data via mediation or a latent structured models. He is also PI of PRIMED Cancer, a project to construct and evaluate polygenic risk scores (PRS) and estimate absolute and excess relative risk for several cancers jointly for PRS and established risk factors in multiethnic populations from six large-scale, longstanding cohorts. Highlighting his commitment to collaborative team science, he is the Director of the Data Science Core for a P01 project investigating aggressive prostate cancer in African American men. This project integrates the built environment, germline and somatic genetic profiles, gene expression and tumor microenvironment data.