Our research focuses on the development of statistical methods for uncovering the genetic basis of human disease, and on the population genetics underlying these methods.  Areas of interest include:

Disease mapping in admixed populations

Admixed populations, which inherit ancestry from multiple continents, represent a technical challenge for disease mapping.  Chromosomal segments of distinct local ancestry that are present in individuals from these populations must be accounted for in fully powered association statistics, because of the advantages of incorporating admixture association signals, because different LD patterns in ancestral populations can lead to different effect sizes at SNPs in LD with a causal SNP, and because this information can be useful for fine-mapping.  Our ongoing research spans all of these technical challenges.
Link to MIXSCORE paper (Pasaniuc et al. 2011).  Also see Africa selection paper (Bhatia et al. 2011) and Admixture review paper (Seldin et al. 2011).

Heritability of complex traits

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of robust associations, yet have explained only a small fraction of the genetic heritability of human traits.  The vast majority of the research that has been conducted thus far has focused on the search for specific disease risk variants, under the view that identifying specific variants is the way to understand genetic risk.  Though this paradigm is unquestionably important, its inability thus far to explain the bulk of genetic heritability provides a strong motivation to delve deeper into the underlying properties of the unexplained heritability.  Our ongoing research uses both identity-by-descent (IBD) and identity-by-state (IBS) to investigate these questions in related and/or unrelated individuals.
Link to deCODE heritability paper (Zaitlen et al. 2013) (Research Highlight).  Also see Gene expression heritability paper (Price et al. 2011)
 

Statistical methods for sequencing studies

Sequencing provides an increasingly appealing alternative to the traditional GWAS approach of identifying common risk variants using genotyping arrays.  Exome sequencing is of particular interest, but will eventually give way to whole-genome sequencing as costs decrease.  New statistical methods are needed to analyze the avalanche of data that is currently being generated.  The question of how to allocate resources to genotyping arrays, exome sequencing, and/or whole-genome sequencing at various coverage levels is a critical but complex question in the face of rapidly changing costs.

Link to Low-coverage sequencing paper (Pasaniuc et al. 2012).  Also see Excess-of-rare-variants paper (Price et al. 2010).