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JOB TITLE: Reader in Statistical Genetics

 
EMAIL ADDRESS: nas11@le.ac.uk

TELEPHONE NUMBER: (0116) 229 7271

ADDRESS:
Departments of Health Sciences and Genetics,
University of Leicester,
2nd Floor Adrian Building,
University Road Leicester, LE1 7RH

RESEARCH:

I work in applied statistics motivated by complex problems in genetics and am currently interested in:

  • Estimating probabilities in complex pedigrees given limited data

  • Computational aspects of complex genetic traits

  • Using graphical models in genetics

  • Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are relevant to all the above. In particular, block sampling schemes are essential in these genetic applications where slow-mixing of single-site samplers is often problematic.

  • Estimating relationships from genetic data and error detection

  • Making causal inferences from epidemiological data using instrumental variables

  • Methods for increasing the power to detect genetic effects on cardiovascular traits

 

RECENT RESEARCH PROJECTS:

  • Statistical methods for high density genetic data (£44,775). Leverhulme Research Fellowship from October  2009 for two years.

  • Inferring epidemiological causality using Mendelian randomisation (£476,000) with Vanessa Didelez (University College London), John Thompson (Leicester) and Debbie Lawlor, Jonathan Sterne and Frank Windmeijer (Bristol) as co-investigators. Funded by the Medical Research Council for three years from October 2007.

  • Statistical methods for genetic epidemiology (£18,500) with Elizabeth Thompson (Seattle) and Max Baur (Bonn) as co-applicants. Funding from the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences to organise a workshop in Edinburgh, May 2007.

  • The application and development of methods to combine information in epidemiologial studies of cardiovascular traits of major public health importance (£60,390) with Martin Tobin (Principal Investigator). A PhD studentship funded by the British Heart Foundation, October 2007-September 2010.

  • Bayesian networks for forensic inference from genetic markers (£ 98,330) awarded to 13 individuals in 8 institutions in 5 countries: Philip Dawid (Principal Investigator), Hilde Wilkinson-Herbots, Vanessa Didelez (University College, London, UK), Robert G. Cowell (City University, London, UK) Nuala A. Sheehan, Paul R. Burton (University of Leicester, UK) Julia Mortera, Paola Vicard (University of Rome Three, Italy) Vincenzo L. Pascali, Marina Dobosz(Catholic University of Rome, Italy) Steffen L. Lauritzen (Aalborg University, Denmark) Thore Egeland (University of Oslo, Norway) Peter Mostad (Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden). Funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Research Interchange Grant (F/071134/K)) from October 2001 to September 2004.

  • Value in People Award (£ 50,000) as Senior research fellow jointly in the Departments of Genetics and Health Sciences. Funded by the Wellcome Trust from November 2003 to October 2004

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    RECENT WORKSHOP ORGANISATION:

     

    SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

    1. Sheehan, N.A, Didelez, V. and S Meng (2009) Mendelian randomisation: a tool for assessing causality in observational epidemiology. In "Genetic Epidemiology", Series on Methods in Molecular Biology, ed. M.D. Teare, Humana Press Inc.  In Press.
    2. Skare, O, Sheehan N and T Egeland (2009) Identification of distant family relationships.  Bioinformatics. In Press. Advnce Online Access published July 6 2009.
    3. Sheehan, N.A, Didelez, V., Burton, P.R. and M.D. Tobin (2008) Mendelian randomisation and causal inference in observational epidemiology. PLoS Medicine 5 (8) e177.
    4. Egeland, T. and N.A. Sheehan (2008) On identification problems requiring linked autosomal markers. Forensic Science International: Genetics 2: 219-225.
    5. Palmer T M, Thompson J R, Tobin M D, Sheehan N A & P R Burton (2008). Adjusting for bias and unmeasured confounding in Mendelian randomization studies with binary responses. International Journal of Epidemiology 37: 1161-1168.
    6. Sheehan, N.A. and T. Egeland (2008)  Adjusting for founder relatedness in a linkage analysis using prior information. Human Heredity 65: 221-231
    7. Lauritzen, S.L and N.A. Sheehan (2007) Graphical models in genetics in "Handbook of Statistical Genetics" 3rd edition, eds. D. Balding, M. Bishop and C.Cannings, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, Vol 2: 808-842.
    8. Sheehan, N.A. and T. Egeland (2007) Structured incorporation of prior information in relationship identification problems. Annals of Human Genetics 71: 501-518.
    9. Didelez, V. and N.A. Sheehan (2007) Mendelian randomisation as an instrumental variable approach to causal inference. Statistical Methods in Medical Research 16: 309-330. 
    10. Sheehan, N.A., Guldbrandtsen, B. and D.A. Sorensen (2007) Evaluating the performance of a block updating MCMC sampler in a simple genetic application. Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, 12: 272-299.
    11. Barrett, J.H, Sheehan, N.A., Cox,A., Worthington, J., Cannings, C. and M.D. Teare (2007) Family based studies and genetic epidemiology: theory and practice. Human Heredity 64: 146-148.
    12. Didelez, V. and N.A. Sheehan (2007) Mendelian randomisation: why epidemiology requires a formal language for causality. In "Causality and Probability in the Sciences", Texts in Philosophy Volume 5, eds. F. Russo and J. Williamson, London College Publications, 263-292.
    13. Tobin, M.D, Sheehan, N.A., Samani, N.J. and P.R. Burton (2007) The genetic epidemiology of hypertension in "Genetics of Hypertension" , eds. A.F. Dominiczak and J.M.C. Connell, Volume 24 in "Handbook of Hypertension", Elsevier, Amsterdam, 5-28.
    14. Tobin, M.D, Sheehan, N.A., Scurrah, K.J. and P.R. Burton (2005) Adjusting for treatment effects in studies of quantitative traits: an example of antihypertensive therapy and systolic blood pressure. Statistics in Medicine, 24, 2911-2935.
    15. Lauritzen, S.L and N.A.Sheehan (2003) Graphical models for genetic analyses. Statistical Science. 18, 489-514
    16. Sheehan, N.A. and D.A. Sorensen (2003). Graphical Models for mapping Continuous Traits in “Highly Structured Stochastic Systems”, eds. P.Green, N. Hjort and S. Richardson. Oxford University Press, 382—392.
    17. Cannings, C. and N.A. Sheehan (2002) On a misconception about irreducibility of the single-site Gibbs sampler in a pedigree application. Genetics, 162, 993—996.
    18. Sheehan, N.A., Guldbrandtsen, B., Lund, M.S. and D.A. Sorensen (2002) Bayesian MCMC mapping of quantitative trait loci in a half-sib design: a graphical model perspective. International Statistical Review, 70, 241—267.
    19. Sheehan, N.A. (2002) Genetic Algorithms in "Encyclopedia of Environmetrics", eds. A.H. El-Shaarawi and W.W. Piegorsch, Wiley & Sons, Chichester, Volume 2, 886-894.
    20. Scurrah, K.J., Sheehan, N.A. and P.R. Burton (2001). Association and linkage for age at onset of a common oligogenic disease using genetic variance components models in “Analysis of complex genetic traits: Applications to asthma and simulated data”, eds. Wijsman EM, Almasy L, Amos CI, Borecki I, Falk CT, King TM, Martinez MM, Meyers D, Neuman R, Olson JM, Rich S, Spence MA, Thomas DC, Vieland VJ, Witte JS, MacCluer JW. Genetic Epidemiology,.21, S680—S685.
    21. Sheehan, N.A. (2000) On the application of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to genetic analyses on complex pedigrees. International Statistical Review, 68, 83—110.
    22. Camp, N., Cannings, C. and N.A. Sheehan (1999). The number of genotypic assignments on a genealogy II. Further results for linear systems. IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medicine and Biology, 16, 213—236.
    23. Hurn, M. A., Rue, H. and N. A. Sheehan (1999) Block updating in constrained  Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. Statistics and Probability Letters, 41, 353—361.
    24. Jensen, C. and N. Sheehan (1998) Problems with determination of non communicating classes for Monte Carlo  Markov chain applications in pedigree analysis. Biometrics, 54, 416—425.
    25. Bansal, A., Cannings, C. and N.A. Sheehan (1997) An evaluation of the application of the genetic algorithm to the problem of ordering loci on humna chromosomes using radiation hybrid data. IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medicine and Biology, 14, 161-187.
    26. Jennison, C.J and N.A. Sheehan (1995) Theoretical and empirical properties of the genetic algorithm for optimisation. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 4, 296-318.
    27. Camp, N., Cannings, C. and N.A. Sheehan (1994). The number of genotypic assignments on a genealogy I. The method and simple examples. IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medicine and Biology, 11, 95 —106.
    28. Sheehan, N.A. and A.W. Thomas (1993). On the Irreducibility of a Markov Chain defined on a space of Genotypic Configurations by a Sampling Scheme. Biometrics, 49, 163—175.
    29. Sheehan, N.A. (1992) Sampling genotypes on complex pedigrees with phenotypic constraints: the origin of the B allele among the Polar Eskimos. IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medicine and Biology, 9, 1-18.