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Weeks EM, Ulirsch JC, Cheng NY, Trippe BL, Fine RS, Miao J, Patwardhan TA, Kanai M, Nasser J, Fulco CP, Tashman KC, Aguet F, Li T, Ordovas-Montanes J, Smillie CS, Biton M, Shalek AK, Ananthakrishnan AN, Xavier RJ, Regev A, Gupta RM, Lage K, Ardlie KG, Hirschhorn JN, Lander ES, Engreitz JM, Finucane HK. Leveraging polygenic enrichments of gene features to predict genes underlying complex traits and diseases. Nat Genet 2023; 55:1267-1276. [PMID: 37443254 PMCID: PMC10836580 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01443-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Accepted: 06/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are a valuable tool for understanding the biology of complex human traits and diseases, but associated variants rarely point directly to causal genes. In the present study, we introduce a new method, polygenic priority score (PoPS), that learns trait-relevant gene features, such as cell-type-specific expression, to prioritize genes at GWAS loci. Using a large evaluation set of genes with fine-mapped coding variants, we show that PoPS and the closest gene individually outperform other gene prioritization methods, but observe the best overall performance by combining PoPS with orthogonal methods. Using this combined approach, we prioritize 10,642 unique gene-trait pairs across 113 complex traits and diseases with high precision, finding not only well-established gene-trait relationships but nominating new genes at unresolved loci, such as LGR4 for estimated glomerular filtration rate and CCR7 for deep vein thrombosis. Overall, we demonstrate that PoPS provides a powerful addition to the gene prioritization toolbox.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elle M Weeks
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Jacob C Ulirsch
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA
| | | | - Brian L Trippe
- Program in Computational & Systems Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Rebecca S Fine
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Endocrinology and Center for Basic and Translational Obesity Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jenkai Miao
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Endocrinology and Center for Basic and Translational Obesity Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Tejal A Patwardhan
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Statistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Masahiro Kanai
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, MGH, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Statistical Genetics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan
| | - Joseph Nasser
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Charles P Fulco
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Bristol Myers Squibb, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Taibo Li
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- MD-PhD Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Jose Ordovas-Montanes
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Christopher S Smillie
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Program in Computational & Systems Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Moshe Biton
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Molecular Biology, MGH, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biological Regulation, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Alex K Shalek
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Ragon Institute of MGH, MMIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Ashwin N Ananthakrishnan
- Gastrointestinal Unit and Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, MGH, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ramnik J Xavier
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Molecular Biology, MGH, Boston, MA, USA
- Gastrointestinal Unit and Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, MGH, Boston, MA, USA
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Aviv Regev
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Genentech, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Rajat M Gupta
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kasper Lage
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Surgery, MGH, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kristin G Ardlie
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Joel N Hirschhorn
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Endocrinology and Center for Basic and Translational Obesity Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Eric S Lander
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jesse M Engreitz
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- BASE Initiative, Betty Irene Moore Children's Heart Center, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Hilary K Finucane
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, MGH, Boston, MA, USA.
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