MPG: Two decades or 150 years of Mendelian randomization, George Davey Smith

Two decades or 150 years of Mendelian randomization?
May 12, 2023
George Davey Smith
“Mendelian randomization (MR) is an approach that uses the special properties of germline genetic variation to help establish how an exposure phenotype influences an outcome phenotype. The recent exponential growth in the use of MR reflects the rapid expansion in data that are available for conducting such studies . This talk will take a long view on the relationship between genetics and phenotypic causation, starting with the fact that since natural selection is through phenotype the issue of phenotypic causality has been central to evolutionary and genetic thought in their modern (i.e. post-1850s) formulations. The 150 years of genetics and phenotypic causation will be summarised, with emphasis on the fact that for making inferences on phenotypic causality - both in evolutionary and epidemiological settings - the key assumption is of gene-environmental equivalence. The evolution of MR since 2003 will be reviewed and what it can - and importantly cannot - do affirmed. Speculations about the next two decades of MR will be advanced, with the suggestion made that it will look very different in 2043 than it does today.
Speaker bio: George Davey Smith was a member of the noise-terrorism outfit Scum Auxiliary in the early 1980s. Since artistic and commercial success eluded them, he has had to earn his living working as an epidemiologist in the provinces of the UK. In 2003 he and Shah Ebrahim published the first extended formalization of Mendelian randomization as it is currently understood, and he is still on the circuit flogging this two decades on.
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