The major research interest of our laboratory is using biostatistical methods in disease gene mapping, comparative genomics, population genetics, and phylogenetic analysis. We develop novel statistical methods/software and apply frequently used analytical tools to locate chromosomal positions of disease susceptibility genes. The ongoing projects are shown below:
Apply statistical methodologies and analytical tools to identify genes that are associated with human complex diseases, such as bipolar disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, Graves’ disease, schizophrenia, breast cancer and liver cancer, etc.
Develop new mathematical models to deal with gene-gene interactions and its application on GWA studies.
Integrate single nucleotide polymorphism with copy number variation data to investigate correlations between DNA structure variations and mRNA gene expression differences in human populations.
Develop new statistical methods for multilocus association mapping. These methods mainly use “longest significant run” based on independent data or dependent data assumptions.
Predict HLA allele genotypes using SNP data for a Han Chinese population and its application in disease gene screening.
Develop methodologies in identifying surrogate phenotypes or endophenotypes upon biological pathways.
Selected Recent Publication
Hsieh AR, Hsiao CL, Chang SW, Wang HM, Fann CS*: On the use of multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) and classification and regression tree (CART) to identify haplotype-haplotype interactions in genetic studies. Genomics. 2011, 97(2):77-85.
Hsiao CL, Lian IB, Hsieh AR, Fann CS*: Modeling expression quantitative trait loci in data combining ethnic populations. BMC Bioinformatics. 2010 27; 11(1):111.
A genome-wide association study identifies susceptibility variants for type 2 diabetes in Han chinese. Tsai FJ, Yang CF, Chen CC, Chuang LM, Lu CH, Chang CT, Wang TY, Chen RH, Shiu CF, Liu YM, Chang CC, Chen P, Chen CH, Fann CS, Chen YT, Wu JY. PLoS Genet. 2010, 19; 6(2):e1000847.
A genome-wide survey of copy number variations in Han Chinese residing in Taiwan. Lin CH, Lin YC, Wu JY, Pan WH, Chen YT, Fann CS*. Genomics. 2009 Oct; 94(4):241-6.
A novel tool for individual haplotype inference using mixed data. Lin CP, Fann CS*. J Biomed Sci. 2009, Jun 2; 16:52.
A large-scale survey of genetic copy number variations among Han Chinese residing in Taiwan. Lin CH, Li LH, Ho SF, Chuang TP, Wu JY, Chen YT, Fann CS*. BMC Genet. 2008 Dec 24; 9:92.
RASD2, MYH9, and CACNG2 genes at chromosome 22q12 associated with the subgroup of schizophrenia with non-deficit in sustained attention and executive function. Liu YL, Fann CS, Liu CM, Chen WJ, Wu JY, Hung SI, Chen CH, Jou YS, Liu SK, Hwang TJ, Hsieh MH, Chang CC, Yang WC, Lin JJ, Chou FH, Faraone SV, Tsuang MT, Hwu HG. Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Nov 1;64(9):789-96.
Kernel-based association test. Yang HC, Hsieh HY, Fann CS*. Genetics. 2008 Jun;179(2):1057-68.
Using the longest significance run to estimate region-specific p-values in genetic association mapping studies. Lian IeB, Lin YH, Lin YC, Yang HC, Chang CJ, Fann CS*. BMC Bioinformatics. 2008 May 27;9:246.
Genome-wide copy number analysis using copy number inferring tool (CNIT) and DNA pooling. Lin CH, Huang MC, Li LH, Wu JY, Chen YT, Fann CS*. Hum Mutat. 2008, 29(8):1055-62.
