title: An atlas of genetic correlations across human diseases and traits.
abstract: Identifying genetic correlations between complex traits and diseases can provide useful etiological insights and help prioritize likely causal relationships. The major challenges preventing estimation of genetic correlation from genome-wide association study (GWAS) data with current methods are the lack of availability of individual-level genotype data and widespread sample overlap among meta-analyses. We circumvent these difficulties by introducing a technique-cross-trait LD Score regression-for estimating genetic correlation that requires only GWAS summary statistics and is not biased by sample overlap. We use this method to estimate 276 genetic correlations among 24 traits. The results include genetic correlations between anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia, anorexia and obesity, and educational attainment and several diseases. These results highlight the power of genome-wide analyses, as there currently are no significantly associated SNPs for anorexia nervosa and only three for educational attainment.
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Stanley Center for Psychiatric Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Brendan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bulik-Sullivan
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Hilary K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Finucane
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Stanley Center for Psychiatric Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Verneri
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Anttila
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.|Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gusev
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Felix R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3789-7651
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Day
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Po-Ru
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Loh
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Stanley Center for Psychiatric Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Laramie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: John R B
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Stanley Center for Psychiatric Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Elise B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Stanley Center for Psychiatric Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Daly
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.|Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Alkes L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Price
authors.affiliation: Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Stanley Center for Psychiatric Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1513-6077
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Neale
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004194:Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics*; D012044:Regression Analysis