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SUMMARY:Professor George Davey Smith: Lunchtime Lecture on Mendelian Rando
 misation - Professor George Davy Smith (Bristol Medical School)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240930T123000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240930T131500
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2178ed83-3e9e-4709-a4f3-e42e0e82a44e/
DESCRIPTION:Mendelian Randomisation (MR) uses the special properties of ge
 rmline genetic variation to strengthen causal inference regarding how modi
 fiable exposures influence disease outcomes. Few papers were published in 
 the first decade of its 20 year history\, but since then there has been an
  exponential increase\, which shows no sign of slowing down. The vast majo
 rity of current papers are\, at best\, uninformative\, and at worst\, nons
 ense.\n\nIn this talk I will restate the fundamental assumption of MR - th
 at of gene-environment equivalence - and the conditions for causal effect 
 identification and estimation. I will then group the threats under three h
 eadings:\n\nNoodles: papers that are prima facie nonsense\, generated from
  easily available two sample MR data and sub–ChatGPT text.\nNo Nulls: in
 fluential early MR findings suggested that some drug targets — such as H
 DL cholesterol level or C-reactive protein — were unlikely to be importa
 nt. Null MR studies are now increasingly rarely seen.\nNumb Skulls: the si
 mplicity of the MR approach is being obscured by increasingly complex meth
 ods\, the assumptions of which will be opaque to most readers and most aut
 hors of papers implementing them. The first of what should be a series of 
 retractions of papers based on one such method has occurred\nThe common so
 urce of these threats will be discussed\, approaches to mitigating them ad
 vanced\, and some promising future directions introduced.\nSpeakers:\nProf
 essor George Davy Smith (Bristol Medical School)
LOCATION:Jesus College ( Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub\, Jesus College\, Univ
 ersity of Oxford\, OX1 3DW (Entrance on Market Street))\, Turl Street OX1 
 3DW
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/2178ed83-3e9e-4709-a4f3-e42e0e82a44e/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Professor George Davey Smith: Lunchtime Lecture on Mendel
 ian Randomisation - Professor George Davy Smith (Bristol Medical School)
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