Overview
Background
Dr Loic Yengo is an Associate Professor at The University of Queensland (UQ) and Group Leader of the Statistical Genomics Laboratory within UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. After completing a PhD in applied mathematics and statistics at the University of Lille (France) in 2014, he joined UQ in 2016 for postdoctoral training in Quantitative and Statistical Genetics. Loic started his own lab in 2020 to investigate the causes and consequences of genetic variation within and between human populations. His group develops and applies novel statistical methods to analyse large volumes of genomic data. Loic’s research has contributed to improving understanding of the genetic and phenotypic consequences of non-random mating (inbreeding and assortative mating) in human populations and has led to identifying novel genetic variants associated with complex traits and diseases. Loic was named among the top 40 rising stars of research by The Australian newspaper in 2021 and received the UQ Foundation research excellence award the same year. Loic is the 2022 recipient of the Ruth Stephens Gani Medal of the Australian Academy of Science recognizing outstanding contributions to research in human genetics, and was named in Nature Medicine’s 2022 Yearbook among 11 early-career researchers “to watch”.
Availability
- Associate Professor Loic Yengo is:
- Available for supervision
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, Université Lille 1 - Sciences et Technologies
Research impacts
The research in the Yengo Lab contributes to the discovery of genes and biological pathways involved in the etiology of multifactorial diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. The ultimate goal of our research is to better understand what genes underlie inter-individual variation in disease susceptibility and help translate that knowledge into new and personalised therapies.
Works
Search Professor Loic Yengo’s works on UQ eSpace
2019
Journal Article
Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for body fat distribution in 694 649 individuals of European ancestry
Pulit, Sara L., Stoneman, Charli, Morris, Andrew P., Wood, Andrew R., Glastonbury, Craig A., Tyrrell, Jessica, Yengo, Loïc, Ferreira, Teresa, Marouli, Eirini, Ji, Yingjie, Yang, Jian, Jones, Samuel, Beaumont, Robin, Croteau-Chonka, Damien C., Winkler, Thomas W., Consortium, Giant, Hattersley, Andrew T., Loos, Ruth J F, Hirschhorn, Joel N., Visscher, Peter M., Frayling, Timothy M., Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Lindgren, Cecilia M. (2019). Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for body fat distribution in 694 649 individuals of European ancestry. Human Molecular Genetics, 28 (1), 166-174. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddy327
2019
Conference Publication
Common genetic variation explains a high proportion of the elevated risk of psychiatric disorders in children of younger mothers
Gratten, Jacob, Yang, Yuanhao, Trzaskowski, Maciej, Kemper, Kathryn, Yengo, Loic, Zheng, Zhili, Zhang, Futao, Zhu, Zhihong, Mcrae, Allan, Yang, Jian, Wray, Naomi and Visscher, Peter (2019). Common genetic variation explains a high proportion of the elevated risk of psychiatric disorders in children of younger mothers. 26th World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG), Glasgow, Scotland, 11-15 October, 2018. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier BV. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2018.08.167
2018
Journal Article
Assortative mating on complex traits revisited: Double first cousins and the X-chromosome
Yengo, Loic and Visscher, Peter M. (2018). Assortative mating on complex traits revisited: Double first cousins and the X-chromosome. Theoretical Population Biology, 124, 51-60. doi: 10.1016/j.tpb.2018.09.002
2018
Journal Article
Imprint of assortative mating on the human genome
Yengo, Loic, Robinson, Matthew R., Keller, Matthew C., Kemper, Kathryn E., Yang, Yuanhao, Trzaskowski, Maciej, Gratten, Jacob, Turley, Patrick, Cesarini, David, Benjamin, Daniel J., Wray, Naomi R., Goddard, Michael E., Yang, Jian and Visscher, Peter M. (2018). Imprint of assortative mating on the human genome. Nature Human Behaviour, 2 (12), 948-954. doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0476-3
2018
Journal Article
Erratum: Author Correction: Misestimation of heritability and prediction accuracy of male-pattern baldness (Nature communications (2018) 9 1 (2537))
Yap, Chloe X., Sidorenko, Julia, Marioni, Riccardo E., Yengo, Loic, Wray, Naomi R. and Visscher, Peter M. (2018). Erratum: Author Correction: Misestimation of heritability and prediction accuracy of male-pattern baldness (Nature communications (2018) 9 1 (2537)). Nature communications, 9 (1) 4953, 4953. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07400-w
2018
Journal Article
Genome analyses of >200,000 individuals identify 58 loci for chronic inflammation and highlight pathways that link inflammation and complex disorders
Ligthart, Symen, Vaez, Ahmad, Võsa, Urmo, Stathopoulou, Maria G., de Vries, Paul S., Prins, Bram P., Van der Most, Peter J., Tanaka, Toshiko, Naderi, Elnaz, Rose, Lynda M., Wu, Ying, Karlsson, Robert, Barbalic, Maja, Lin, Honghuang, Pool, René, Zhu, Gu, Macé, Aurélien, Sidore, Carlo, Trompet, Stella, Mangino, Massimo, Sabater-Lleal, Maria, Kemp, John P., Abbasi, Ali, Kacprowski, Tim, Verweij, Niek, Smith, Albert V., Huang, Tao, Marzi, Carola, Feitosa, Mary F. ... Alizadeh, Behrooz Z. (2018). Genome analyses of >200,000 individuals identify 58 loci for chronic inflammation and highlight pathways that link inflammation and complex disorders. American Journal of Human Genetics, 103 (5), 691-706. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.09.009
2018
Journal Article
Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for height and body mass index in ∼700000 individuals of European ancestry
Yengo, Loic, Sidorenko, Julia, Kemper, Kathryn E., Zheng, Zhili, Wood, Andrew R., Weedon, Michael N., Frayling, Timothy M., Hirschhorn, Joel, Yang, Jian and Visscher, Peter M. (2018). Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for height and body mass index in ∼700000 individuals of European ancestry. Human Molecular Genetics, 27 (20), 3641-3649. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddy271
2018
Journal Article
ALDH2 Polymorphism rs671, but Not ADH1B Polymorphism rs1229984, Increases Risk for Hypo-HDL-Cholesterolemia in a/a Carriers Compared to the G/G Carriers
Imatoh, Takuya, Yengo, Loic, Rocheleau, Ghislain, Kamimura, Seiichiro, Maeda, Shiro, Miyazaki, Motonobu and Froguel, Philippe (2018). ALDH2 Polymorphism rs671, but Not ADH1B Polymorphism rs1229984, Increases Risk for Hypo-HDL-Cholesterolemia in a/a Carriers Compared to the G/G Carriers. Lipids, 53 (8), 797-807. doi: 10.1002/lipd.12087
2018
Journal Article
Genome-wide association analyses identify 143 risk variants and putative regulatory mechanisms for type 2 diabetes
Xue, Angli, Wu, Yang, Zhu, Zhihong, Zhang, Futao, Kemper, Kathryn E., Zheng, Zhili, Yengo, Loic, Lloyd-Jones, Luke R., Sidorenko, Julia, Wu, Yeda, eQTLGen Consortium, McRae, Allan F., Visscher, Peter M., Zeng, Jian and Yang, Jian (2018). Genome-wide association analyses identify 143 risk variants and putative regulatory mechanisms for type 2 diabetes. Nature Communications, 9 (1) 2941, 2941. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04951-w
2018
Journal Article
Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals
Lee, James J., Wedow, Robbee, Okbay, Aysu, Kong, Edward, Maghzian, Omeed, Zacher, Meghan, Nguyen-Viet, Tuan Anh, Bowers, Peter, Sidorenko, Julia, Karlsson Linnér, Richard, Fontana, Mark Alan, Kundu, Tushar, Lee, Chanwook, Li, Hui, Li, Ruoxi, Royer, Rebecca, Timshel, Pascal N., Walters, Raymond K., Willoughby, Emily A., Yengo, Loïc, 23andMe Research Team, COGENT (Cognitive Genomics Consortium), Social Science Genetic Association Consortium, Alver, Maris, Bao, Yanchun, Clark, David W., Day, Felix R., Furlotte, Nicholas A., Joshi, Peter K. ... Cesarini, David (2018). Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals. Nature Genetics, 50 (8), 1112-1121. doi: 10.1038/s41588-018-0147-3
2018
Journal Article
Increased hepatic PDGF-AA signaling mediates liver insulin resistance in obesity-associated type 2 diabetes
Abderrahmani, Amar, Yengo, Loïc, Caiazzo, Robert, Canouil, Mickaël, Cauchi, Stéphane, Raverdy, Violeta, Plaisance, Valérie, Pawlowski, Valérie, Lobbens, Stéphane, Maillet, Julie, Rolland, Laure, Boutry, Raphael, Queniat, Gurvan, Kwapich, Maxime, Tenenbaum, Mathie, Bricambert, Julien, Saussenthaler, Sophie, Anthony, Elodie, Jha, Pooja, Derop, Julien, Sand, Olivier, Rabearivelo, Iandry, Leloire, Audrey, Pigeyre, Marie, Daujat-Chavanieu, Martine, Gerbal-Chaloin, Sabine, Dayeh, Tasnim, Lassailly, Guillaume, Mathurin, Philippe ... Froguel, Philippe (2018). Increased hepatic PDGF-AA signaling mediates liver insulin resistance in obesity-associated type 2 diabetes. Diabetes, 67 (7), 1310-1321. doi: 10.2337/db17-1539
2018
Journal Article
Misestimation of heritability and prediction accuracy of male-pattern baldness
Yap, Chloe X., Sirodenko, Julia, Marioni, Riccardo E., Yengo, Loic, Wray, Naomi R. and Visscher, Peter M. (2018). Misestimation of heritability and prediction accuracy of male-pattern baldness. Nature Communications, 9 (1) 2537, 2537. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04807-3
2018
Conference Publication
Association between population density and genetic risk for schizophrenia
Colodro-Conde, Lucía, Couvy-Duchesne, Baptiste, Whitfield, John B., Streit, Fabian, Gordon, Scott, Kemper, Kathryn E., Yengo, Loic, Zheng, Zhili, Trzaskowski, Maciej, de Zeeuw, Eveline L., Nivard, Michel G., Das, Marjolijn, Neale, Rachel E., MacGregor, Stuart, Olsen, Catherine M., Whiteman, David C., Boomsma, Dorret I., Yang, Jian, Rietschel, Marcella, McGrath, John J., Medland, Sarah E. and Martin, Nicholas G. (2018). Association between population density and genetic risk for schizophrenia. Chicago, IL, United States: American Medical Association. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.1581
2018
Journal Article
Identifying gene targets for brain-related traits using transcriptomic and methylomic data from blood
Qi, Ting, Wu, Yang, Zeng, Jian, Zhang, Futao, Xue, Angli, Jiang, Longda, Zhu, Zhihong, Kemper, Kathryn, Yengo, Loic, Zheng, Zhili, eQTLGen Consortium, Marioni, Riccardo E., Montgomery, Grant W., Deary, Ian J., Wray, Naomi R., Visscher, Peter M., McRae, Allan F. and Yang, Jian (2018). Identifying gene targets for brain-related traits using transcriptomic and methylomic data from blood. Nature Communications, 9 (1) 2282, 2282. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04558-1
2018
Journal Article
Insights into the genetic epidemiology of Crohn's and rare diseases in the Ashkenazi Jewish population
Rivas, Manuel A., Avila, Brandon E., Koskela, Jukka, Huang, Hailiang, Stevens, Christine, Pirinen, Matti, Haritunians, Talin, Neale, Benjamin M., Kurki, Mitja, Ganna, Andrea, Graham, Daniel, Glaser, Benjamin, Peter, Inga, Atzmon, Gil, Barzilai, Nir, Levine, Adam P., Schiff, Elena, Pontikos, Nikolas, Weisburd, Ben, Lek, Monkol, Karczewski, Konrad J., Bloom, Jonathan, Minikel, Eric V., Petersen, Britt-Sabina, Beaugerie, Laurent, Seksik, Philippe, Cosnes, Jacques, Schreiber, Stefan, Bokemeyer, Bernd ... T2D-GENES Consortium (2018). Insights into the genetic epidemiology of Crohn's and rare diseases in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. PLoS Genetics, 14 (5) e1007329, 1-25. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007329
2018
Journal Article
Signatures of negative selection in the genetic architecture of human complex traits
Zeng, Jian, de Vlaming, Ronald, Wu, Yang, Robinson, Matthew R., Lloyd-Jones, Luke R., Yengo, Loic, Yap, Chloe X., Xue, Angli, Sidorenko, Julia, McRae, Allan F., Powell, Joseph E., Montgomery, Grant W., Metspalu, Andres, Esko, Tonu, Gibson, Greg, Wray, Naomi R., Visscher, Peter M. and Yang, Jian (2018). Signatures of negative selection in the genetic architecture of human complex traits. Nature Genetics, 50 (5), 746-753. doi: 10.1038/s41588-018-0101-4
2018
Journal Article
Refining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes article
Mahajan, Anubha, Wessel, Jennifer, Willems, Sara M., Zhao, Wei, Robertson, Neil R., Chu, Audrey Y., Gan, Wei, Kitajima, Hidetoshi, Taliun, Daniel, Rayner, N. William, Guo, Xiuqing, Lu, Yingchang, Li, Man, Jensen, Richard A., Hu, Yao, Huo, Shaofeng, Lohman, Kurt K., Zhang, Weihua, Cook, James P., Prins, Bram Peter, Flannick, Jason, Grarup, Niels, Trubetskoy, Vassily Vladimirovich, Kravic, Jasmina, Kim, Young Jin, Rybin, Denis V., Yaghootkar, Hanieh, Müller-Nurasyid, Martina, Meidtner, Karina ... GIANT Consortium (2018). Refining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes article. Nature Genetics, 50 (4), 559-571. doi: 10.1038/s41588-018-0084-1
2018
Journal Article
Reply to Kardos et al.: estimation of inbreeding depression from SNP data
Yengo, Loic, Zhu, Zhihong, Wray, Naomi R., Weir, Bruce S., Yang, Jian, Robinson, Matthew R. and Visscher, Peter M. (2018). Reply to Kardos et al.: estimation of inbreeding depression from SNP data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (11), E2494-E2495. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1718598115
2018
Journal Article
Erratum: Sequence data and association statistics from 12,940 type 2 diabetes cases and controls
Flannick, Jason, Fuchsberger, Christian, Mahajan, Anubha, Teslovich, Tanya M., Agarwala, Vineeta, Gaulton, Kyle J., Caulkins, Lizz, Koesterer, Ryan, Ma, Clement, Moutsianas, Loukas, McCarthy, Davis J., Rivas, Manuel A., Perry, John R B, Sim, Xueling, Blackwell, Thomas W., Robertson, Neil R., Rayner, N William, Cingolani, Pablo, Locke, Adam E., Tajes, Juan Fernandez, Highland, Heather M., Dupuis, Josee, Chines, Peter S., Lindgren, Cecilia M., Hartl, Christopher, Jackson, Anne U., Chen, Han, Huyghe, Jeroen R., van de Bunt, Martijn ... McCarthy, Mark I. (2018). Erratum: Sequence data and association statistics from 12,940 type 2 diabetes cases and controls. Scientific Data, 5 (1) 180002, 180002. doi: 10.1038/sdata.2018.2
2018
Conference Publication
Signatures of negative selection in the genetic architecture of human complex traits
Zeng, Jian, de Vlaming, Ronald, Wu, Yang, Robinson, Matthew R., Lloyd-Jones, Luke R., Yengo, Loic, Yap, Chloe X., Xue, Angli, Sidorenko, Julia, Mcrae, Allan F., Powell, Joseph E., Montgomery, Grant W., Metspalu, Andres, Esko, Tonu, Gibson, Greg, Wray, Naomi R., Visscher, Peter M. and Yang, Jian (2018). Signatures of negative selection in the genetic architecture of human complex traits. 48th Annual Meeting of the Behavior-Genetics-Association (BGA), Boston MA, United States, 20-23 June 2018. New York, NY United States: Springer New York.
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Loic Yengo is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Available projects
-
Genetic and Molecular consequences of non-random mating in humans
Short Project description. This projects aims at utilising genetic and phenotypic data from ~500,000 participants of the UK Biobank to investigate phenotypic and genetic patterns induced by non-random mating in humans. Two forms of non-random mating will be investigated: assortative mating (resemblance between spouses) and inbreeding (mating between relatives). Findings from this project have implications in the analysis and interpretation of genome-wide association studies. The project will involve advanced modelling and statistical analyses of large volumes of data (genotyped and imputed SNP data, whole-exome sequencing, gene-expression, brain-imaging derived-traits).
Candidate. Candidates with a background in quantitative/population genetics, statistics, mathematics and other quantitative fields will be considered. Programming skills (R, python, C/C++) and prior experience in analysing genetic data (e.g. GWAS) is desirable. (Note: if required, lectures on fundamental concepts of quantitative and population genetics can be taken as part of the PhD training).
The Team. The successful candidate will be doing their research within the Program in Complex Traits Genomics (PCTG) Lab co-led by Professors Jian Yang, Naomi Wray and Peter Visscher, who are internationally recognized leaders in the field of complex traits genetics and have been recently listed among the world’s top one per cent most cited researchers of their field. PCTG provides a stimulating and highly interdisciplinary environment for PhD candidates to form and develop their research.
PhD advisor. Dr Loic Yengo is a senior research officer of the Institute of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, Australia; and the Statistical Genetics Team leader within PCTG. He did his PhD in applied mathematics and is an expert in statistical modelling and analysis of genetic data. His research interests intersect quantitative genetics, genetic epidemiology and sociogenomics.
Expected start. First semester of 2020.
Contact. If you’re interested, please send your CV and cover letter and two references to Dr Loic Yengo: l.yengo@imb.uq.edu.au
URLs
The team PCTG: http://cnsgenomics.com/
PhD advisor: https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=iv8dxlIAAAAJ&hl=en
Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
Investigating the time and tissue dependent genetic architecture of complex traits
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Nicole Warrington
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Doctor Philosophy
Genomic signature of non-random mating in human complex traits
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Peter Visscher
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Doctor Philosophy
Statistical methods and application to analyses genome and trait data from large biobanks
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kathryn Kemper, Professor Peter Visscher
Completed supervision
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2021
Doctor Philosophy
Within and Across Populations Complex Traits and Diseases Prediction Using Summary Statistics from Large-scale Genome-wide Association Studies
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Peter Visscher
Media
Enquiries
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