Training opportunities

I have been fortunate to mentor students from across UW. Learn more about their graduate programs below:

• UW College of Arts and Sciences: Department of Biology, Department of Statistics.
• UW School of Public Health: Department of Biostatistics, Department of Epidemiology, and Institutes for Public Health Genomics.
• UW School of Medicine: Department of Bioengineering, Department of Genome Sciences, Genetic Counseling Program.

Courses

BIOST 581: Statistical Genetics Seminar (1 credit)

Co-instructors: Dr. Liz Blue, Dr. Sharon Browning, Dr. Guanghao Qi, and Dr. Georgia Tsambos

Students in the Department of Biostatistics can get a PhD in the Statistical Genetics Pathway. This course is an essential component of that pathway. Each quarter we organize a journal club series on a specific topic, the current schedule is posted publicly at https://courses.washington.edu/b581/ . Dr. Blue typically organizes and instructs one quarter per year, previous reading lists are provided below:

• 2023 Autumn: Genetic ancestry inference 
• 2022 Spring: Genetic epidemiology: Beyond GWAS
• 2022 Autumn: Rare variant testing
• 2021 Spring: Using modern DNA to learn about (pre)history and demographics
• 2020 Spring: Genotype calling of repeats and structural variants
• 2019 Winter: Predicting variant consequences
• 2018 Winter: Ancient admixture in humans
• 2017 Winter: Batch effects and convenience controls
• 2013 Autumn: Y-chromosomes, with Dr. Bruce Weir

GCNSL 524: Biostatistics in Genetic Counseling (2 credits)

Instructor: Dr. Liz Blue

This course offers an introduction to how to apply statistical methods to genetic data to evaluate individual and relatives’ probability of a condition or carrier status. It integrates data from patients and populations, pedigrees, genetics principles and probability. The course also empowers students to better evaluate and critique the literature relevant to genetic counseling and genotype-phenotype relationships. Specific topics include an overview of basic probability, odds ratios and recurrence risk, penetrance and expressivity, Bayes’ Theorem, kinship estimation, and genetic epidemiological approaches, including linkage analysis and association testing.

PHG 580: Interactive Seminar in Public Health Genetics (1 credit)

Instructor: Dr. Liz Blue

The goals of the course are to provide the student with: (1) Broad exposure to PHG research or methodology through invited seminars, (2) Opportunities to present research or journal club, (3) A forum for PHG students (of all levels) to interact and support peer-learning. By the end of this course, students should be able to: (1) Describe and discuss current issues in research and practice in public health genetics and related disciplines, and (2) Engage interactively in discussion of selected research topics.