Concepts, estimation and interpretation of SNP-based heritability – Nature Genetics

February 22, 2026

See Box 1, viz:

QT:{{”

Box 1 Statistical model used in the GREML approach to estimate hS2NP The statistical model used by GREML can be described in its simplest form as y = Wu + e
where y is an n x 1 vector of standardized phenotypes with n equal to the sample size, W = {wij} is an n x m standardized SNP genotype matrix where m is the number of SNPs, u = {ui} is an m x 1 vector of the additive effects of all variants when fitted jointly in the model, u ~ N(0,Iσ2) with I being an identity matrix, u and e is a vector of residuals, e ~ N(0,Iσ2). An equivalent model is….

y=g+e
g ~ N(0,A…)
A=W W’

In practice, A is called the SNP-derived genetic (or genomic) relationship matrix (GRM) and is estimated from the SNP data. The estimate …from GREML can be described as the estimated variance explained by all the SNPs (mσu) or equivalently as the estimated genetic variance by contrasting the phenotypic similarity
between unrelated individuals to their SNP-derived genetic similarity “}}

https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.3941

Yang, J., Zeng, J., Goddard, M. E., Wray, N. R., & Visscher, P. M. (2017). Concepts, estimation and interpretation of SNP-based heritability. Nature Genetics, 49(9), 1304–1310.
https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3941


The Condo Market Hasn’t Been This Bad in Over a Decade – WSJ

February 22, 2026

https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/the-condo-market-hasnt-been-this-bad-in-over-a-decade-9f3e7256?st=pN7PSL&reflink=article_gmail_share 10% down this year nationwide


Yale School of Medicine Ranks 4th in U.S. for NIH Funding | Yale School of Medicine

February 22, 2026

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/yale-school-of-medicine-ranks-4th-for-nih-funding/?utm_source=beatrix_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YSM_News_and_Recognition_02-18-26


MCB111 Mathematics in Biology

February 22, 2026

http://mcb111.org/w06/w06-lecture.html
Has some nice textbook downloads – e.g.
http://mcb111.org/w06/KollerFriedman.pdf

QT:{{”
There are many good books to learn about probabilistic models. “Probabilistic graphical models: principles and techniques” (by Koller & Friedman) is a comprehensive source about more general probabilistic models than the one we are going to study here.
“}}
Subset of chap 7 focuses on GMRF


Send ppt from our chat

February 22, 2026

good tutorial/textbook chaper/review paper on Poisson regression :

Below are a few readings that discuss how to fit a generalized linear mixed model.

1. Breslow & Clayton (1993), JASA, Approximate Inference in
Generalized Linear Mixed Models.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2290687
A classic statistical paper introducing the Laplace approximation and penalized quasi-likelihood for GLMMs

2. Bates (2011), Mixed models in R using the lme4 package Part 5: Generalized linear mixed models
https://lme4.r-forge.r-project.org/slides/2011-03-16-Amsterdam/5GLMMH.pdf 3. Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of statistical software, 67, 1-48.
https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
4. Bates (2025), Computational methods for mixed models
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/lme4/vignettes/Theory.pdf

These are written by the authors of the lme4 package, discussing the details of how a mixed-effects model (more specifically, a generalized linear mixed-effects model) is trained using the PIRLS approach.


Master Equation Notes – Following Up on Your Questions

February 22, 2026

1. Paulsson (2005) – “Models of stochastic gene expression”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1571064505000138 Nice pedagogical review of the master equation framework – covers the conceptual foundations and different analytical approaches.

2. Shahrezaei & Swain (2008) – “Analytical distributions for stochastic gene expression”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18988743/
This one derives the exact analytical solutions to the master equation for protein/mRNA distributions.

The Paulsson paper is probably better as a tutorial.
However, it’s a bit difficult to connect to protein & mRNA.


The Differences Between Tylenol, Aleve, Advil, and Aspirin

February 22, 2026

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-the-difference-between-motrin-and-advil-770459


Huntington disease | Nature Reviews Disease Primers

February 22, 2026

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrdp20155

nrdp20155.pdf

Bates, G. P., Dorsey, R., Gusella, J. F., Hayden, M. R., Kay, C., Leavitt, B. R., Nance, M., Ross, C. A., Scahill, R. I., Wetzel, R., Wild, E. J., & Tabrizi, S. J. (2015). Huntington disease. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 1(1), 15005.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nrdp.2015.5


What Is a Blepharoplasty? What to Know About the Popular Eyelid Surgery – WSJ

February 22, 2026

What Is a Blepharoplasty? What to Know About the Popular Eyelid
Surgery – WSJ https://www.wsj.com/style/beauty/blepharoplasty-eyelid-lift-cosmetic-surgery-cc865580


Equinox chairman: ‘Health is the new luxury’ as wellness spending soars

February 22, 2026

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/02/20/equinox-optimize-membership-waiting-list.html