Donnelly group

Alexander Young

 

DPhil student

Address:

Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Dr.
Oxford, OX3 7BN

Email

 

Work summary

I am developing computationally efficient algorithms for the prediction of phenotypes from dense genotype data. I take a Bayesian approach, attempting to integrate all of the relevant information, including environmental variables when recorded. The accurate prediction of phenotype from genotype relies on an accurate picture of genetic architecture, which leads me to models which adaptively learn genetic architecture from the data. 

I have been investigating the genetic architecture of complex traits in terms of the proportion of variance that is accounted for by different types of genetic effects: additive effects, genetic interactions of differing order, and dominance effects. To do this requires samples descending recently from a small number of ancestors, such as human founder populations, the quantitative genetics of which I take an interest in. 
 

Publications

Young AI, Durbin R, (2013) Estimation of heritability components including genetic interactions in founder populations and laboratory crosses. Submitted to PLoS Genetics.

Addinall SG, Holstein E-M, Lawless C, Yu M, Chapman K, Banks AP, Ngo H, Maringele L, Taschuk M, Young A, Ciesiolka A, Lister AL, Wipat A, Wilkinson DJ, Lydall D, (2011) Quantitative fitness analysis shows that NMD proteins and many other protein complexes suppress or enhance distinct telomere cap defects. PLoS Genet 7(4)

Conor Lawless, Darren J Wilkinson, Alexander Young, Stephen G Addinall and David A Lydall, (2010) Colonyzer: automated quantification of micro-organism growth characteristics on solid agar, BMC Bioinformatics 11(287) 

Software: http://qfa.r-forge.r-project.org/