Alexander Strudwick Young

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I’m a statistical geneticist at UCLA and on the steering committee of the SSGAC.

I am interested in how genetic variation gives rise to the diversity of humans in all their facets: physical traits, behaviours, social outcomes. A central theme of my research is how we can use the randomisation of genetic material within-families to disentangle nature and nurture. This then enables us to understand how genetic and cultural transmission from parents to offspring, combined with mating patterns, shape the distribution of traits in the population.

I develop theory, statistical methods, and software for analyzing genetic data.

Please get in touch if you’re interested in working with me as a pre-doctoral research assistant, graduate student, or postdoc.

In previous years, I obtained degrees in mathematics and statistics, computational biology, and a doctorate in genomic medicine and statistics from the University of Oxford. I worked at deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik.

I used to write a blog, archived here.

selected publications

  1. two_gen_estimation.png
    Estimation of indirect genetic effects and heritability under assortative mating
    Alexander Strudwick Young
    bioRxiv, 2023
  2. snipar_flowchart.png
    Mendelian imputation of parental genotypes improves estimates of direct genetic effects
    Alexander Strudwick Young, Seyed Moeen Nehzati, Stefania Benonisdottir, and 7 more authors
    Nature genetics, 2022
  3. ea4_preview.png
    Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals
    Aysu Okbay, Yeda Wu, Nancy Wang, and 8 more authors
    Nature genetics, 2022
  4. deconstructing.png
    Deconstructing the sources of genotype-phenotype associations in humans
    Alexander Strudwick Young, Stefania Benonisdottir, Molly Przeworski, and 1 more author
    Science, 2019
  5. solving.png
    Solving the missing heritability problem
    Alexander Strudwick Young
    PLoS genetics, 2019
  6. RDR.png
    Relatedness disequilibrium regression estimates heritability without environmental bias
    Alexander Strudwick Young, Michael L Frigge, Daniel F Gudbjartsson, and 7 more authors
    Nature genetics, 2018
  7. 41588_2018_225_Fig2_HTML.webp
    Identifying loci affecting trait variability and detecting interactions in genome-wide association studies
    Alexander Strudwick Young, Fabian L Wauthier, and Peter Donnelly
    Nature genetics, 2018