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THE 2021 VIRTUAL WORKSHOP ON 

STATISTICAL GENETIC METHODS FOR HUMAN COMPLEX TRAITS 

ADVANCE NOTICE 

JUNE 7th – JUNE 18th, 2021 

Because of the COVID pandemic, our next workshop will be held virtually.The virtual course includes topics that would have previously been addressed in either the `introductory’ or `advanced’ workshops, emphasizing the integration and complementary nature of biometrical genetics and genomics based approaches.  

The daily schedule will include prerecorded lectures, plenary sessions, practical work, and interactive tutorials. We anticipate parallel or serial sessions to accommodate different time zones. Registered students will need to commit to approximately 3-4 hours per day on-line for each of the 10 days of the workshop --- June 7-11, June 14-18. We recommend blocking out this time on your calendar for those dates. 

Topics include: the biometrical model, genomics, study design, quality control (QC), genome wide association studies (GWAS), structural equation modelling (SEM), phenomics, heritability, GCTA, LD score regression, meta-analysis, polygenic risk scores (PRS), genomic SEM, causal analysis and Mendelian Randomization (MR), pathway and gene based analyses, genome sequencing, rare variants, and responsible conduct of research (RCR). Software includes R, OpenMx, PLINK, GCTA, HAIL, LD-Score, Genomic SEM, and others. 

Participants are strongly advised to have some familiarity with R programming before attending the workshop. For those not familiar with R, you should take advantage of the many introductory R tutorials available online. Students will use their own browser to connect to an Rstudio server in Boulder to do work in R. You will use SSH to connect to the workshop computing cluster to use command line software. This will provide a system for running practicals with the same capabilities as has been used at previous in-person courses. 

The Academic Directors for this workshop will be: 

Ben Neale (Broad Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)),  

Dave Evans (Diamantina Institute, University of Queensland (UQ), Australia),  

Sarah Medland (Queensland Institute for Medical Research (QIMR), Australia),  

Michael Neale (Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University).  

The IT director is Jeff Lessem (Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG), CU Boulder). The local hosts are John Hewitt (IBG) and Matt Keller (IBG).  

In addition to the academic directors, the outstanding roster of faculty who will coordinate topics also includes: Lucia Colodro Conde (QIMR), Katrina Grasby (QIMR), Loic Yengo Dimbou (UQ), Michel Nivard (Amsterdam), Andrew Grotzinger (UT Austin), Danielle Posthuma (Amsterdam), the `Hail team’ (MGH), and Wei Zhou (MGH). These topic coordinators will be supported by additional faculty offering virtual tutorials and practical help sessions for registered students throughout the two weeks of the workshop. A Spanish language option will be available for most tutorial and practical help sessions. 

Registration will open on February 1st, 2021, and is limited to 100 students. The registration fee is $300, payable by April 30th, 2021. Non-payment will result in your registration being dropped and your place being given to someone else. Cancellations after May 14th will be non-refundable. Further information and details of scheduling, registration, and course materials will be available at /ibg/workshop-2021 or from the workshop coordinator: tel: 303-492-6057; e-mail: IBGworkshop@colorado.edu 

Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from socially, culturally, economically, or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds are especially encouraged to attend. Partial financial support for US participants from these groups is available by application to the local host, John Hewitt. Contact the workshop coordinator for more information regarding partial financial support. 

Financial support for this workshop is provided by grant MH19918 from the National Institute of Mental Health.