Jennifer Asimit

I joined the MRC Biostatistics Unit in October 2016 as a Senior Investigator Statistician, on a fellowship-track position, and work with Chris Wallace. My interests are in statistical methodology development for the analysis of next-generation sequencing data and genome-wide genotype data, including multiple trait analyses, fine-mapping, rare variant analyses, and incorporation of prior biological knowledge/external data. Previously, I worked at the Wellcome Trust Sanger institute, where I held a MRC Methodology Research fellowship, titled “Methodology for the identification of shared genetic aetiology between epidemiologically linked disorders".

Selected Papers

• Y Xue, M Mezzavilla, M Haber, S McCarthy, Y Chen, VNarasimhan, A Gilly, Q Ayub, V Colonna, L Southam, C Finan, A Massala, H Chheda, P Palta, G Ritchie, J Asimit, G Dedoussis, P Gasparini, A Palotie, S Ripatti, N Soranzo, D Toniolo, FL Wilson, R Durbin, C Tyler-Smith, E Zeggini. (2017). Enrichment of low-frequency functional variants revealed by whole-genome sequencing of multiple isolated European populations. Nature Communications, 8, 15927. http://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15927.
• JL Asimit, F Payne, AP Morris, HJ Cordell, I Barroso (2017). A two-stage inter-rater approach for enrichment testing of variants associated with multiple traits, European Journal of Human Genetics,25, 341–349; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2016.
• M Horikoshi, L Pasquali, S Wiltshire, JR Huyghe, A Mahajan, JL Asimit, T Ferreira, AE Locke, NR Robertson, X Wang, X Sim, H Fujita, K Hara, R Young, W Zhang, S Choi, H Chen, I Kaur, F Takeuchi, P Fontanillas, D Thuillier, L Yengo, JE Below, CHT Tam, Y Wu, T2D-GENES Consortium, Goncalo Abecasis, D Altshuler, GI Bell, J Blangero, NP Burtt, R Duggirala, JC Florez, CL Hanis, M Seielstad, G Atzmon, JCN Chan, RCW Ma, P Froguel, JG Wilson, D Bharadwaj, J Dupuis, JB Meigs, YS Cho, T Park, JS Kooner, JC Chambers, D Saleheen, T Kadowaki, ES Tai, KL Mohlke, N J Cox, J Ferrer, E Zeggini, N Kato, YY Teo, M Boehnke, MI McCarthy, and AP Morris (2016). Transancestral fine-mapping of four type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci highlights potential causal regulatory mechanisms. Human Molecular Genetics. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddw048.
• JL Asimit, K Hatzikotoulas, M McCarthy, AP Morris, E Zeggini (2016). Trans-ethnic study design approaches for fine-mapping, European Journal of Human Genetics. 24, 1330–1336; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2016.1.
• JL Asimit, K Panoutsopoulou, E Wheeler, SI Berndt, the GIANT consortium, the arcOGEN consortium, HJ Cordell, AP Morris, E Zeggini, I Barroso (2015). A Bayesian approach to the overlap analysis of epidemiologically linked traits, Genetic Epidemiology, 39, 624-634, doi: 10.1002/gepi.21919.
• D Gurdasani, T Carstensen, F Tekola-Ayele, L Pagani, I Tachmazidou, K Hatzikotoulas, S Karthikeyan, L Iles, A Choudhury, GRS Ritchie, Y Xue, JL Asimit, RN Nsubuga, EH Young, C Pomilla, K Kivinen, K Rockett, A Kamali, AP Doumatey, G Asiki, J Seeley, F Sisay-Joof, M Jallow, S Tollman, E Mekonnen, R Ekong, T Oljira, N Bradman, K Bojang, M Ramsay, A Adeyemo, E Bekele, A Motala, S Norri, F Pirie, P Kaleebu, D Kwiatkowski, C Tyler-Smith, C Rotimi, MS Sandhu, E Zeggini (2015). The African Genome Variation Project shapes medical genetics in Africa, Nature, 517, 327—332.
• JL Asimit and E Zeggini (2013). Imputation of rare variants in next generation association studies, Human Heredity, 74, 196—204.
• R Magi, JL Asimit, AG Day-Williams, E Zeggini and AP Morris. (2012). Genome-wide association analysis of imputed rare variants: application to seven common complex diseases, Genetic Epidemiology, 36, 785—796.
• JL Asimit, AG Day-Williams, AP Morris and E Zeggini (2012). ARIEL and AMELIA: Testing for an accumulation of rare variants using next-generation sequencing data, Human Heredity, 73, 84—94.
• JL Asimit, AG Day-Williams, L Zgaga, I Rudan, V Boraska and E Zeggini (2012). An evaluation of different meta-analysis approaches in the presence of allelic heterogeneity, European Journal of Human Genetics, 20, 709—712.
• MC Lopes, C Joyce, GRS Ritchie, SL John, F Cunningham, JL Asimit, and E Zeggini (2012). A combined functional annotation score for non-synonymous variants, Human Heredity, 73, 47—51.
• K Chapman, T Ferreira, A Morris, JL Asimit, and E Zeggini (2011). Defining the power limits of genome-wide association scan meta-analyses, Genetic Epidemiology, 35, 781—789.
• JL Asimit and E Zeggini (2011). Testing for rare variant associations in complex diseases, Genome Medicine, 3:24.
• JL Asimit, IL. Andrulis, and SB Bull (2011). `Regression models, scan statistics and reappearance probabilities to detect regions of association between gene expression and copy number, Statistics in Medicine, 30, 1157—1178.
• E Zeggini and JL Asimit (2010). An evaluation of power to detect low-frequency variant associations using allele-matching tests that account for uncertainty,  Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing 2011 Proceedings.
• JL Asimit and E Zeggini (2010). Rare variant association analysis methods for complex traits, Annual Review of Genetics, 44, 293—308.
• J Beyene, D Tritchler, JL Asimit, JS Hamid (2009). Gene- or region-based analysis of genome-wide association studies, Genetic Epidemiology, 33 (Supplement 1), S105--S110.
• JL Asimit, YJ Yoo, D Waggott, L Sun, SB Bull (2009). Region-based analysis in GWA of FHS blood lipid phenotypes, BMC Proceedings, 3 (Suppl 7), S127. doi: 10.1186/1753-6561-3-S7-S127.

  Refereed Book Chapter

• JL Asimit and AP Morris (2015). Collapsing approaches for the association analysis of rare variants, In Assessing rare variation in complex traits: Design and analysis of genetic studies, Springer-Verlag, New York, 135-148.

  Software Development

1. MTFM (Multi-Trait Fine-mapping); to be released soon
2. COMET (Corrected Overlap and Marginal Enrichment Test); http://www.sanger.ac.uk/science/tools/comet
3. BOAT (Bayesian Overlap Analysis Tool); http://www.sanger.ac.uk/science/tools/boat
4. ARIEL (Accumulation of Rare variants Integrated and Extended Locus-specific test); http://www.sanger.ac.uk/science/tools/ariel
5. AMELIA (Allele Matching Empirical Locus-specific Integrated Association test); http://www.sanger.ac.uk/science/tools/amelia