Recent advances in sequencing and “omics” technologies (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.) have enabled increasingly detailed characterization of biological mechanisms. Multi-omics approaches, such as DIABLO or MOFA, provide dimension reduction methods that can identify latent factors explaining shared variability across multiple molecular layers. However, one limitation of these approaches is their limited use of genetic information. Genotyping and sequencing data are central to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and have made it possible to identify genetic variants regulating molecular traits (QTL or Quantitative Trait Loci). Their integration into multi-omics models therefore represents a major opportunity to better understand the genetic architecture of complex diseases.
The project aims to develop and evaluate a method to integrate genetic information into Bayesian multi-omics models (e.g., MOFA). The idea is to inform prior distributions in these models using genetic co-regulation of molecular traits, in order to better assess the contribution of genetic variants to observed omics profiles.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
