News & Events

Shout-out to Pei-Yu for being selected as one of the 2024 institutional Best Poster awardees

恭喜珮妤的論文海報取得流預所優良海報的佳績

Our collaborative study on the cross-population genetic architecture of education attainment is published in Nature Human Behaviour

This joint study by Taiwan and South Korea researchers presents the first large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment, a heritable trait linked to cognitive ability, in East Asian ancestry. Combining this with data from European ancestry, the study reveals a high genetic correlation and similar functional enrichment between populations. Cross-ancestry analysis improved variant fine-mapping and polygenic prediction transferability. The research supports the importance of diverse ancestries to better understand the genetics of educational attainment.

Reference:
Chen, T.-T., Kim, J., Lam, M., Chuang, Y.-F., Chiu, Y.-L., … Feng, Y.-C. A., Lin, Y. F., Myung, W., Chen, C. Y., Won, H. H. (2024). Shared genetic architectures of educational attainment in East Asian and European populations. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(3), 562–575.

The Feng Lab welcomes its newest (and youngest) member, already trying to lift his head from day one!

Our phenome-wide genetic investigation across Taiwan, Japan, and the UK Biobanks is published in Cell Genomics

In this study, we expanded the scope of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) by analyzing 102,900 individuals from the Taiwan Biobank (TWB), focusing on 36 human quantitative traits. We identified hundreds of novel genetic loci and highlighted the importance of diversifying study populations beyond European ancestries. By comparing genetic architecture across TWB, Biobank Japan, and UK Biobank, we gained valuable insights into the common genetic basis of complex traits in East Asia and demonstrated the effectiveness of cross-population polygenic risk scores in predicting disease risk.

Reference:
Chen, C. Y.*, Chen, T. T., Feng, Y.-C. A.*, Yu, M., Lin, S. C., Longchamps, R., Wang, S. H., Hsu, Y. H., Yang, H. I., Kuo, P. H., Daly, M. J., Chen, W. J., Huang, H., Ge, T., & Lin, Y. F.* (2023). Analysis across Taiwan Biobank, Biobank Japan and UK Biobank identifies hundreds of novel loci for 36 quantitative traits. Cell Genomics, 3(12):100436.

The Feng Lab hosted a Happy Hour on a merry Thanksgiving Day 🦃🎃🫛🥧🍗

Our collaborative work on the development and validation of a new genome-wide association method is now out in Nature Genetics

We collaborated with University of Queensland scholars to validate and apply their novel genome-wide association study (GWAS) method in three East Asian biobanks (including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan). This approach corrects for polygenic scores of other chromosomes and uses a 2-step meta-analysis to reduce background variation and enhance statistical power. It identified more genetic loci associated with key traits and biomarkers (such as height and HDL) and improved polygenic predictions, especially for smaller non-European populations.

Reference:
Campos, A. I., Namba, S., Lin, S. C., Nam, K., Sidorenko, J., Wang, H., Kamatani, Y., Biobank Japan Project, Wang, L. H., Lee, S., Lin, Y. F., Feng, Y.-C. A., Okada, Y., Visscher, P., & Yengo, L. (2023). Boosting the power of genome-wide association studies within and across ancestries by using polygenic scores. Nature Genetics, 55(10), 1769–1776.

Ling-Hua’s Master’s thesis explored EHRs in the UK Biobank to study the genetics of treatment resistant depression, revealing a significant polygenic basis and insights toward precision psychiatry.

恭喜齡嬅碩士畢業！

Congratulations to Mu-Yi Shih and Jeffery Tsai on being awarded the College Student Research Scholarship by the National Science and Technology Council!

恭喜沐儀和哲維獲得國科會大專生專題計畫補助

“Taiwan Biobank: A rich biomedical research database of the Taiwanese population” published in Cell Genomics

This landmark paper provides a comprehensive genetic characterization of the Taiwan Biobank (TWB), detailing population and familial structure, multi-omics resources, and major discoveries. Together, this demonstrated TWB’s contribution to genetic diversity research, which has since increased its visibility and invited global collaborations.

Reference:
Feng, Y.-C. A.*, Chen, C. Y., Chen, T. T., Kuo, P. H., Hsu, Y. H., Yang, H. I., Chen, W. J., Shen, C. Y., Ge, T., Huang, H., Lin, Y. F.* (2022). Taiwan Biobank: a rich biomedical research database of the Taiwanese population. Cell Genomics, 2(11): 100197.