Professional Summary
Laura Scott is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Biostatistics. She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1993 and an M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 1995. From 1995-2000 she worked on the epidemiology of breast cancer and hypertension at Michigan State University and on the epidemiology and genetic epidemiology of complications of type 1 diabetes at the Joslin Diabetes Center. In 2000 she moved to the University of Michigan to begin work in statistical genetics with Michael Boehnke. She joined the faculty in the Biostatistics Department in 2003. Dr. Scott's research focuses on identifying genetic variants that increase the risk of type II diabetes as part of the FUSION study (Finland United States Investigation of NIDDM genetics) and that increase the risk of bipolar disease as part of the Pritzker Consortium.
Education
M.P.H., Epidemiology, University of Michigan, School of Public Health, 1995
Ph.D., Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 1993
B.A., Chemistry with concentration in French, Albion College, 1985
Research Interest & Projects
Identification of genetic variants for type II diabetes and bipolar disease: My primary research interest is the identification of genetic variants that increase the risks of common diseases. For type II diabetes, as part of the Finland-United States Investigation of NIDDM genetics (FUSION) study, and for bipolar disease, as part of the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium, I am involved in genome-wide association studies of e300K SNP variants. Analysis of the SNP variants in the context of their biological function(s) will provide information on the spectrum of disease causing variants for common diseases.
Efficient design of two-stage studies for genome-wide association studies: Genome-wide association studies can be prohibitively expensive because of the need to genotype large numbers case/control samples on large numbers, e300K, SNP markers. In conjunction with Andrew Skol, Goncalo Abecasis, and Michael Boehnke we are investigating the optimal design of two-stage studies in which a subset of the cases and controls are genotyped on all the markers in the first stage and the remaining cases and controls are genotyped on a subset of the original markers. Optimal two- stage designs can reduce the genotyping costs by >50% while retaining almost all of the power of the one-stage design.
Design and analysis of experimental studies of animal and cell culture: I am working with basic scientists on the design of experimental studies that aim to discover the underlying biological mechanisms for disease. My current focus is on the effect of fatty acid feeding/supplementation on the development of diabetic retinopathy in rats and the signaling pathways in cultured cells from human eyes.
Selected Publications
Skol, A.D., Scott, L.J., Abecasis, G.R., Boehnke, M. ( 2007). Optimal design of two-stage genome-wide association studies. Genetic Epidemiol
Saunders, E., Scott, L.J., McInnis, M.G., Burmeister, M (2007). Familiality and diagnostic patterns of subphenotypes in the National Institutes of Mental Health bipolar sample. Am J Med Genetic
Scott, L.J., Mohlke, K.L., Bonnycastle, L.L., Willer, C.J., Li, Y., Duren, W.L., Erdos, M.R., Stringham, H.M., Chines, P.S., Jackson, A.U., Prokunina-Olsson, L., Ding, CJ, Swift, A.J., Narisu, N., Hu, T., Pruim, R., Xiao, R., Li, X.Y., Conneely, K.N., Rie (2007). A genome-wide association study of type 2 diabetes in Finns detects multiple susceptibility variants. Science 316, 1341-1345..
Scott L.J. and Rogus J.J. (2000). Using unaffected child trios to test for transmission distortion. Genetic Epidemiolgy, 19, 381-394.
Silander K., *Scott L.J., Valle T.T., Mohlke K.L.,&., Collins F.S., and Boehnke M. (2004). A large set of Finnish affected sibling pair families with type 2 diabetes suggests susceptibility loci on chromosomes 6, 11, and 14. Diabetes, 53, 821-829. *co-first author.
Li C., Scott L.J., and Boehnke C.L. (2004). Assessing whether an associated allele can account in part for a linkage signal: the genotype-IBD sharing test (GIST). American Journal of Human Genetics, 74, 418-431.
Silander K., Mohlke K.L., Scott L.J., Boehnke M., and Collins, F.S. (2004). Genetic variation near the Hepatocye Nuclear Factor-4 Alpha gene predicts susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. Diabetes, 53, 1141-1149.
Skol A.D., Scott L.J., Abecasis G.R., and Boehnke M. (2005). Joint analysis is more efficient than replication analysis in two-stage genome-wide association studies. Nat Genet, in Press
Skol A. D., Scott L. J., Abecasis G. R., Boehnke M. (2006). Joint analysis is more efficient for whole genome association studies. Nature Genetics, 38, 209-213.
Scott, L.J., Bonnycastle, L.L., Willer, C.J.,...,Mohlke, K.L., Collins, F.S., Boehnke, M. (2006). Association of transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) variants with type 2 diabetes in a Finnish sample. Diabetes, 55, 2649-2653.
Professional Affiliations
American Society of Human Genetics
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