The Advances in Social Genomics Conference Series (TAGC)

The official TAGC schedule can be found below or in a .pdf format here.

(schedule subject to change)

Day 1: Thursday, June 8^th, 2023

• 9:00am – Distinguished Speaker Presentation; Chair – Jason Fletcher (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Dorothy Farrar-Edwards (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “All of Us”

~Breakfast will be served~

• 10:00am – Session 1 – New Directions in Polygenic Score Analysis; Chair – James Li (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Robel Alemu (University of California-Los Angeles), “Relative predictive performance of polygenic indexes (PGIs) across diverse ancestral populations”
  • Brooke Sasia (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “Examining a mechanism of polygenic scores on developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors”
  • Wei Zhao (University of Michigan), “Examining direct and indirect genetic effects on depression in children and adolescents in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)”

~15-minute break~

• 11:15am – Session 2 – Using Genetics to Answer Social Science Questions; Chair – Jason Fletcher (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Marta Bilghese (University of Southern California), “The Influence of Assortative Mating on Studies of Education and Health”
  • Jonathan Beauchamp (George Mason University), “Adverse selection in insurance markets due to genetic prediction”
  • David Hugh-Jones (unaffiliated scholar), “Trading social status for genetics in marriage markets: evidence from Great Britain and Norway”
• 12:15pm – Keynote Speaker Presentation
  • Kathleen Mullan Harris (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Add Health in the Age of Social Genomics

~Lunch will be served~

• 1:30pm – Session 3 – Family Based Analysis; Chair – Qiongshi Lu (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Tammy Tan (National Bureau of Economic Research), “Meta-analysis of family-based genome-wide association studies”
  • Junming Guan (University of California, Los Angeles), “Novel estimators for family-based genome-wide association studies increase power and robustness”
  • Yuchang Wu (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “Pervasive biases in GWAS using family history of Alzheimer’s disease as proxy phenotypes”

~15-minute break~

• 2:45pm – Session 4 – Advances in Biological Aging; Chair – Lauren Schmitz (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Jennifer Smith (University of Michigan), “Epigenetic Biomarkers of Socioeconomic Status are associated with Age-Related Chronic Diseases and Mortality in Older Adults”
  • Gracie Venechuk (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “The Effect of County-Level Recession Intensity on Accelerated Epigenetic Aging: Evidence from the 2008-2010 Recession”
  • Kyle Bourassa (Duke University), “Treatable health conditions during adolescence and accelerated aging at midlife”
• 4:00pm – Conference Mixer at the Memorial Union Terrace
• 6:00pm – Conference Dinner at Cooper’s Tavern (20 W. Mifflin St., Madison, WI, 53703)

Day 2: Friday, June 9^th, 2023

• 9:00am – Keynote Speaker Presentation; Chair – Jason Fletcher (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Konrad Karczewski (Massachusetts General Hospital), “Diversity improves all aspects of genomic research: lessons from 700,000 human exomes, genomes, and genotypes”

~Breakfast will be served~

~15-minute break~

• 10:15am – Session 5 – Biological Aging and EWAS; Chair – Lauren Schmitz (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Eric Klopack (University of Southern California), “Development of a novel transcriptomic measure of aging: Transcriptomic Mortality-risk Age (TraMA)”
  • Connor Martz (University of Texas at Austin), “Primary School Context and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging in Black and White Children”
  • Lauren Opsanick (University of Michigan), “Epigenome-Wide Association Study of Long-term Psychosocial Stress in Older Adults”

~15-minute break~

• 11:30am – Session 6 – Innovations in GxE; Chair – Qiongshi Lu (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Evelina Akimova (University of Oxford), “Gene-X environment analysis supports protective effects of eveningness chronotype on self-reported and actigraphy-derived sleep duration among regular night shift workers in the UK Biobank”
  • Yeongmi Jeong (University of Georgia), “The Effect of Peers’ Genetic Predisposition to Depression on Own Mental Health”
  • Qiongshi Lu (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “Reimagining Gene-Environment Interaction Analysis for Human Complex Traits”
• 12:30pm – Lunch break independently (local options will be suggested!)
• 1:30pm – Session 7 – New Directions in Social Genomics; Chair – James Li (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Gabrielle Benoit (University of California, Santa Barbara), “Socio-demographic Patterning of Microplastic Burden in the U.S.”
  • Moiz Bhai (University of Arkansas at Little Rock), “The Effect of Scope of Practice Reform for Nurse Practictioners on Diabetic Costs”
• 2:30pm – Conclusions and Group Discussion

Funding for this conference was made possible, in part by 5R13 AG066268-03 from the National Institute on Aging. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Kathleen Mullan Harris, TAGC Keynote Speaker, James Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Carolina Population Center, “Add Health in the Age of Social Genomics”

Konrad Karczewski, TAGC Keynote Speaker, Assistant Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, “Diversity improves all aspects of genomic research: lessons from 700,000 human exomes, genomes, and genotypes”

Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, Distinguished Speaker, Faculty Director, Collaborative Center for Health Equity, UW Institute for Clinical and Translation Research, “All of Us”

• Brooke Sasia, Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Connor Martz, Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Texas at Austin
• David Hugh-Jones, Faculty, University of East Anglia
• Eric Klopack, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
• Evelina Akimova, Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Oxford
• Gabrielle Benoit, Graduate Student, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Gracie Venechuk, Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jennifer Smith, Faculty, University of Michigan
• Jonathan Beauchamp, Faculty, George Mason University
• Junming Guan, Research Analyst, University of California, Los Angeles
• Kyle Bourassa, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Durham VA Medical Center – Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC)
• Lauren Opsasnick, Graduate Student, University of Michigan School of Public Health
• Marta Bilghese, Pre-Doctoral Research Assistant, University of Southern California
• Moiz Bhai, Faculty, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
• Qiongshi Lu, Faculty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Robel Alemu, Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of California Los Angeles and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
• Tammy Tan, Pre-Doctoral Researcher, National Bureau of Economic Research
• Wei Zhao, Faculty, University of Michigan
• Yeongmi Jeong, Graduate Student, University of Georgia
• Zhongxuan Sun, Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison

HOTELS:

TAGC has reserved a block of hotel rooms at the Graduate Hotel (601 Langdon St., Madison, WI) for attendees to book. Please follow this link to make your reservation in the block. 

FOOD:

Breakfast will be provided, and a conference dinner will occur on Thursday, June 8th, at 6pm at Cooper’s Tavern (20 W. Mifflin,
Madison, WI). Lunch will be provided on Thursday, June 8th, and lunch will be indpendent on Friday, June 9th, with a host of local food trucks available a block away!

For research submission and presentation questions, please contact Jason Fletcher (jason.fletcher@wisc.edu).

For event outreach, communications, and partnerships, please contact Grace Herndon (gherndon@wisc.edu).

For travel/accommodation questions, please contact Mary Lynn Dombrowski (mldombrowski@wisc.edu).