

SGX: Statistical Genomics
Telephone number: 01223 330368Email Address: chris.wallace@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk
Person Overview
Chris Wallace is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and joined the MRC BSU as an honorary Programme Leader in February 2016. Prior to this, she held fellowships from the Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation at other institutes in Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London, where she worked on various aspects of statistical genomics. Her focus is on the twin goals of using genomic analysis to make meaningful contributions to the understanding of human autoimmune disease and the development of statistical methodology to enable these contributions.BSU Research Overview
Chris Wallace's research programme has two complementary aims. First, to develop the statistical tools needed to identify genetic associations with disease, then robustly and empirically link each genetic association with a gene, cell type, stimulatory condition and ultimately a biological pathway. Specifically, this requires methods for:- horizontal integration of different layers of omics data
- mapping the variants which regulate gene expression
- "fine mapping" causal genetic variants from amongst associated variants in genetic association data, typically using sparse variable selection
- "fine mapping" regulatory contacts in 3D maps of folded DNA from technologies such as promoter capture Hi-C
Selected Papers
Burren OS, Rubio García A, Javierre BM, Rainbow DB, Cairns J, Cooper NJ, Lambourne JJ, Schofield E, Castro Dopico X, Ferreira RC, Coulson R, Burden F, Rowlston SP, Downes K, Wingett SW, Frontini M, Ouwehand WH, Fraser P, Spivakov M, Todd JA, Wicker LS, Cutler AJ, Wallace C. (2017)Chromosome contacts in activated T cells identify autoimmune disease candidate genesGenome Biology 18:165:
Javierre BM*, Burren OS*, Wilder SP*, Kreuzhuber R*, Hill SM, Sewitz S, Cairns J, Wingett SW, Várnai C, Thiecke MJ, Burden F, Farrow S, Cutler AJ, Rehnström K, Downes K, Grassi L, Kostadima M, Freire-Pritchett P, Wang F, Stunnenberg HG, Todd JA, Zerbino DR, Stegle O, Ouwehand WH, Frontini M#, Wallace C#, Spivakov M#, Fraser P#. (2016)Lineage-Specific Genome Architecture Links Enhancers and Non-coding Disease Variants to Target Gene Promoters
Cell vol. 167, no. 5, pp: 1369-1384
Liley J, Todd JA, Wallace C. (2016)A method for identifying genetic heterogeneity within phenotypically defined disease subgroups.
Nature Genetics 49(2): 310-316
Fortune MD, Guo H, Burren O, Schofield E, Walker NM, Ban M, Sawcer SJ, Bowes J, Worthington J, Barton A, Eyre S, Todd JA, Wallace C. (2015)Statistical colocalization of genetic risk variants for related autoimmune diseases in the context of common controls
Nature Genetics 47(7): 839-846
Liley J, Wallace C. (2015)A Pleiotropy-Informed Bayesian False Discovery Rate Adapted to a Shared Control Design Finds New Disease Associations From GWAS Summary Statistics.
PLoS genetics vol. 11, no. 2, pp. e1004926.:
Wallace C, Cutler AJ, Pontikos N, Pekalski ML, Burren OS, Cooper JD, García AR, Ferreira RC, Guo H, Walker NM, Smyth DJ, Rich SS, Onengut-Gumuscu S, Sawcer SJ, Ban M, Richardson S, Todd JA, Wicker LS (2015)Dissection of a Complex Disease Susceptibility Region Using a Bayesian Stochastic Search Approach to Fine Mapping
PLoS genetics vol. 11, no. 5, pp. e1005272.:
Giambartolomei C, Vukcevic D, Schadt EE, Franke L, Hingorani AD, Wallace C, Plagnol V. (2014)Bayesian test for colocalisation between pairs of genetic association studies using summary statistics.
PLoS genetics vol. 10, no. 5, pp. e1004383.:
Burren OS, Guo H, Wallace C. (2014)VSEAMS: A pipeline for variant set enrichment analysis using summary GWAS data identifies IKZF3, BATF and ESRRA as key transcription factors in type 1 diabetes.
Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) :
Wallace C. (2013)Statistical testing of shared genetic control for potentially related traits.
Genetic epidemiology vol. 37, no. 8, pp. 802-813: