Overview
Background
David Evans is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He is a winner of the NHMRC Marshall and Warren Award.
He completed his PhD in Statistical Genetics at the University of Queensland in 2003, before undertaking a four-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford where he worked as part of the The International HapMap Consortium and co-led the analysis of four diseases within the first Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. In 2007 he moved to take up a Senior Lecturer position at the University of Bristol where he led much of the genome-wide association studies work in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). In 2013 he returned to take up a chair at the University of Queensland whilst continuing to lead an MRC Programme in statistical genetics at the University of Bristol.
His research interests include the genetic mapping of complex traits and diseases (including birthweight and other perinatal traits, osteoporosis, ankylosing spondylitis, sepsis, laterality) and the development of statistical methodologies in genetic epidemiology including approaches for gene mapping, individual risk prediction, causal modelling and dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits. He has a particular interest in Mendelian randomization and has used it and other causal methods to investigate the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)- the idea that adverse intrauterine exposures lead to increased risk of disease in later life.
He is Academic Codirector at the NIH funded International Workshop on Statistical Genetics Methods and is faculty on the European Programme in Educational Epidemiology.
He is Associate Editor at the International Journal of Epidemiology and Behavior Genetics journals.
Availability
- Professor David Evans is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours), The University of Queensland
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
Research interests
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Mendelian randomization
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Genome-wide association studies
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Causal Modeling
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Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)
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Laterality
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Sepsis
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Osteoporosis
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Ankylosing Spondylitis
Works
Search Professor David Evans’s works on UQ eSpace
2023
Journal Article
Insulin and body mass index decrease serum soluble leptin receptor levels in humans
Sommer, Christine, Vangberg, Kjersti G., Moen, Gunn-Helen, Evans, David M., Lee-Ødegård, Sindre, Blom-Høgestøl, Ingvild K., Sletner, Line, Jenum, Anne K., Drevon, Christian A., Gulseth, Hanne L. and Birkeland, Kåre I. (2023). Insulin and body mass index decrease serum soluble leptin receptor levels in humans. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 108 (5), 1110-1119. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgac699
2023
Journal Article
Production and consumption in agri-food transformations: rethinking integrative perspectives
Beacham, Jonathan D. and Evans, David M. (2023). Production and consumption in agri-food transformations: rethinking integrative perspectives. Sociologia Ruralis, 63 (2), 309-327. doi: 10.1111/soru.12423
2023
Journal Article
Do environmental effects indexed by parental genetic variation influence common psychiatric symptoms in childhood?
Jami, Eshim S., Hammerschlag, Anke R., Sallis, Hannah M., Qiao, Zhen, Andreassen, Ole A., Magnus, Per M., Njølstad, Pål R., Havdahl, Alexandra, Pingault, Jean-Baptiste, Evans, David M., Munafò, Marcus R., Ystrom, Eivind, Bartels, Meike and Middeldorp, Christel (2023). Do environmental effects indexed by parental genetic variation influence common psychiatric symptoms in childhood?. Translational Psychiatry, 13 (1) 94, 1-6. doi: 10.1038/s41398-023-02348-y
2023
Journal Article
Investigating a possible causal relationship between maternal serum urate concentrations and offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomization study
Decina, Caitlin S., Hopkins, Rhian, Bowden, Jack, Shields, Beverly M., Lawlor, Deborah A., Warrington, Nicole M., Evans, David M., Freathy, Rachel M. and Beaumont, Robin N. (2023). Investigating a possible causal relationship between maternal serum urate concentrations and offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomization study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 52 (1), 178-189. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyac186
2023
Journal Article
Causal effects of maternal circulating amino acids on offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomisation study
Zhao, Jian, Stewart, Isobel D., Baird, Denis, Mason, Dan, Wright, John, Zheng, Jie, Gaunt, Tom R., Evans, David M., Freathy, Rachel M., Langenberg, Claudia, Warrington, Nicole M., Lawlor, Deborah A. and Borges, Maria Carolina (2023). Causal effects of maternal circulating amino acids on offspring birthweight: a Mendelian randomisation study. eBioMedicine, 88 104441, 1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104441
2023
Journal Article
Genotype by sex interactions in ankylosing spondylitis
Li, Zhixiu, McRae, Allan F., Wang, Geng, Ellis, Jonathan J., Whyte, Jessica, Kenna, Tony J., Brown, Matthew A. and Evans, David M. (2023). Genotype by sex interactions in ankylosing spondylitis. Nature Genetics, 55 (1), 14-16. doi: 10.1038/s41588-022-01250-5
2023
Journal Article
Rare variant analyses across multiethnic cohorts identify novel genes for refractive error
Musolf, Anthony M., Haarman, Annechien E. G., Luben, Robert N., Ong, Jue-Sheng, Patasova, Karina, Trapero, Rolando Hernandez, Marsh, Joseph, Jain, Ishika, Jain, Riya, Wang, Paul Zhiping, Lewis, Deyana D., Tedja, Milly S., Iglesias, Adriana I., Li, Hengtong, Cowan, Cameron S., Baird, Paul Nigel, Veluchamy, Amutha Barathi, Burdon, Kathryn P., Campbell, Harry, Chen, Li Jia, Cheng, Ching-Yu, Chew, Emily Y., Craig, Jamie E., Cumberland, Phillippa M., Deangelis, Margaret M., Delcourt, Cécile, Ding, Xiaohu, Evans, David M., Fan, Qiao ... Bailey-Wilson, Joan E. (2023). Rare variant analyses across multiethnic cohorts identify novel genes for refractive error. Communications Biology, 6 (1) 6, 1-17. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-04323-7
2023
Journal Article
Novel genetic determinants of dental maturation in children
Grgic, O., Prijatelj, V., Dudakovic, A., Vucic, S., Dhamo, B., Trajanoska, K., Monnereau, C., Zrimsek, M., Gautvik, K.M., Reppe, S., Shimizu, E., Haworth, S., Timpson, N.J., Jaddoe, V.W.V., Jarvelin, M.-R., Evans, D., Uitterlinden, A.G., Ongkosuwito, E.M., van Wijnen, A.J., Medina-Gomez, C., Rivadeneira, F. and Wolvius, E.B. (2023). Novel genetic determinants of dental maturation in children. Journal of Dental Research, 102 (3), 349-356. doi: 10.1177/00220345221132268
2023
Other Outputs
GWAS summary statistics of phenotypes generated for the journal article "Mendelian randomization analysis of factors related to ovulation and reproductive function and endometrial cancer risk" published in 2022.
Moen, Gunn-Helen, Evans, David and D’Urso, Shannon (2023). GWAS summary statistics of phenotypes generated for the journal article "Mendelian randomization analysis of factors related to ovulation and reproductive function and endometrial cancer risk" published in 2022.. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/3381ffb
2022
Journal Article
Using genomic structural equation modeling to partition the genetic covariance between birthweight and cardiometabolic risk factors into maternal and offspring components in the Norwegian HUNT study
Moen, Gunn-Helen, Nivard, Michel, Bhatta, Laxmi, Warrington, Nicole M., Willer, Cristen, Åsvold, Bjørn Olav, Brumpton, Ben and Evans, David M. (2022). Using genomic structural equation modeling to partition the genetic covariance between birthweight and cardiometabolic risk factors into maternal and offspring components in the Norwegian HUNT study. Behavior Genetics, 53 (1), 1-13. doi: 10.1007/s10519-022-10116-9
2022
Journal Article
Mendelian randomization analysis of factors related to ovulation and reproductive function and endometrial cancer risk
D’Urso, Shannon, Arumugam, Pooja, Weider, Therese, Hwang, Liang-Dar, Bond, Tom A., Kemp, John P., Warrington, Nicole M., Evans, David M., O’Mara, Tracy A. and Moen, Gunn-Helen (2022). Mendelian randomization analysis of factors related to ovulation and reproductive function and endometrial cancer risk. BMC Medicine, 20 (1) 419, 1-17. doi: 10.1186/s12916-022-02585-w
2022
Journal Article
Birth weight and cardiometabolic risk factors: a discordant twin study in the UK Biobank
Wang, Geng, Bond, Tom A., Warrington, Nicole M. and Evans, David M. (2022). Birth weight and cardiometabolic risk factors: a discordant twin study in the UK Biobank. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 14 (2) PII S2040174422000538, 1-7. doi: 10.1017/s2040174422000538
2022
Journal Article
Using adopted individuals to partition indirect maternal genetic effects into prenatal and postnatal effects on offspring phenotypes
Hwang, Liang-Dar, Moen, Gunn-Helen and Evans, David M. (2022). Using adopted individuals to partition indirect maternal genetic effects into prenatal and postnatal effects on offspring phenotypes. eLife, 11 e73671, 1-27. doi: 10.7554/elife.73671
2022
Journal Article
Evaluating indirect genetic effects of siblings using singletons
Howe, Laurence J., Evans, David M., Hemani, Gibran, Davey Smith, George and Davies, Neil M. (2022). Evaluating indirect genetic effects of siblings using singletons. PLOS Genetics, 18 (7) e1010247, 1-16. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010247
2022
Journal Article
Mendelian randomization study of maternal coffee consumption and its influence on birthweight, stillbirth, miscarriage, gestational age and pre-term birth
Brito Nunes, Caroline, Huang, Peiyuan, Wang, Geng, Lundberg, Mischa, D’Urso, Shannon, Wootton, Robyn E., Borges, Maria Carolina, Lawlor, Deborah A., Warrington, Nicole M., Evans, David M., Hwang, Liang-Dar and Moen, Gunn-Helen (2022). Mendelian randomization study of maternal coffee consumption and its influence on birthweight, stillbirth, miscarriage, gestational age and pre-term birth. International Journal of Epidemiology, 52 (1), 1-13. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyac121
2022
Journal Article
Within-sibship genome-wide association analyses decrease bias in estimates of direct genetic effects
Howe, Laurence J., Nivard, Michel G., Morris, Tim T., Hansen, Ailin F., Rasheed, Humaira, Cho, Yoonsu, Chittoor, Geetha, Ahlskog, Rafael, Lind, Penelope A., Palviainen, Teemu, van der Zee, Matthijs D., Cheesman, Rosa, Mangino, Massimo, Wang, Yunzhang, Li, Shuai, Klaric, Lucija, Ratliff, Scott M., Bielak, Lawrence F., Nygaard, Marianne, Giannelis, Alexandros, Willoughby, Emily A., Reynolds, Chandra A., Balbona, Jared V., Andreassen, Ole A., Ask, Helga, Baras, Aris, Bauer, Christopher R., Boomsma, Dorret I., Campbell, Archie ... Within Family Consortium (2022). Within-sibship genome-wide association analyses decrease bias in estimates of direct genetic effects. Nature Genetics, 54 (5), 581-592. doi: 10.1038/s41588-022-01062-7
2022
Journal Article
DNA methylation in peripheral tissues and left-handedness
Odintsova, Veronika V., Suderman, Matthew, Hagenbeek, Fiona A., Caramaschi, Doretta, Hottenga, Jouke-Jan, Pool, René, Dolan, Conor V., Ligthart, Lannie, van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E M, Willemsen, Gonneke, de Geus, Eco J C, Beck, Jeffrey J., Ehli, Erik A., Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel, Evans, David M., Medland, Sarah E., Relton, Caroline L., Boomsma, Dorret I. and van Dongen, Jenny (2022). DNA methylation in peripheral tissues and left-handedness. Scientific Reports, 12 (1) 5606, 5606. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-08998-0
2022
Journal Article
Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals
Okbay, Aysu, Wu, Yeda, Wang, Nancy, Jayashankar, Hariharan, Bennett, Michael, Nehzati, Seyed Moeen, Sidorenko, Julia, Kweon, Hyeokmoon, Goldman, Grant, Gjorgjieva, Tamara, Jiang, Yunxuan, Hicks, Barry, Tian, Chao, Hinds, David A., Ahlskog, Rafael, Magnusson, Patrik K E, Oskarsson, Sven, Hayward, Caroline, Campbell, Archie, Porteous, David J., Freese, Jeremy, Herd, Pamela, Watson, Chelsea, Jala, Jonathan, Conley, Dalton, Koellinger, Philipp D., Johannesson, Magnus, Laibson, David, Meyer, Michelle N. ... Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (2022). Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals. Nature Genetics, 54 (4), 437-449. doi: 10.1038/s41588-022-01016-z
2022
Journal Article
Exploring the causal effect of maternal pregnancy adiposity on offspring adiposity: Mendelian randomisation using polygenic risk scores
Bond, Tom A., Richmond, Rebecca C., Karhunen, Ville, Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel, Borges, Maria Carolina, Zuber, Verena, Couto Alves, Alexessander, Mason, Dan, Yang, Tiffany C., Gunter, Marc J., Dehghan, Abbas, Tzoulaki, Ioanna, Sebert, Sylvain, Evans, David M., Lewin, Alex M., O’Reilly, Paul F., Lawlor, Deborah A. and Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta (2022). Exploring the causal effect of maternal pregnancy adiposity on offspring adiposity: Mendelian randomisation using polygenic risk scores. BMC Medicine, 20 (1) 34, 1-16. doi: 10.1186/s12916-021-02216-w
2022
Journal Article
Limb development genes underlie variation in human fingerprint patterns
Li, Jinxi, Glover, James D., Zhang, Haiguo, Peng, Meifang, Tan, Jingze, Mallick, Chandana Basu, Hou, Dan, Yang, Yajun, Wu, Sijie, Liu, Yu, Peng, Qianqian, Zheng, Shijie C., Crosse, Edie I., Medvinsky, Alexander, Anderson, Richard A., Brown, Helen, Yuan, Ziyu, Zhou, Shen, Xu, Yanqing, Kemp, John P., Ho, Yvonne Y.W., Loesch, Danuta Z., Wang, Lizhong, Li, Yingxiang, Tang, Senwei, Wu, Xiaoli, Walters, Robin G., Lin, Kuang, Meng, Ruogu ... Wang, Sijia (2022). Limb development genes underlie variation in human fingerprint patterns. Cell, 185 (1), 95-112.e18. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.12.008
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor David Evans is:
- Available for supervision
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Available projects
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Sometimes Correlation does Equal Causation: Developing Statistical Methods to Determine Causality Using Genetic Data
There is a well-known mantra that correlation does not necessarily equal causation. This is why randomized controlled trials in which participants are physically randomized into treatment and placebo groups are the gold standard for assessing causality in epidemiological investigations. However, what is less appreciated is that strong evidence for causality can sometimes be obtained using observational data only. In particular, genotypes are randomly transmitted from parents to their offspring independent of the environment and other confounding factors, meaning that genotypes associated with particular traits can be used like natural “randomized controlled trials” to examine whether these traits causally affect risk of disease.
The aim of this PhD project is to develop statistical methods to assess causality using observational data alone. The successful candidate will gain experience across a wide range of advanced statistical genetics methodologies including Mendelian randomization (a way of using genetic variants to investigate putatively causal relationships), structural equation modelling, genome-wide association analysis (GWAS), genetic restricted maximum likelihood (G-REML) analysis of genome-wide data which can be used to partition variation in phenotypes into genetic and environmental sources of variation, and instrumental variables analysis (using natural “experiments” to obtain information on causality from observational data). The candidate will apply the new statistical methods that they develop to large genetically informative datasets like the UK Biobank (500,000 individuals with genome-wide SNP data).
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Harnessing Genetically Informative Within-Family Research Designs for Deeper Insights into the Intrauterine Developmental Period and Downstream Effects on Offspring Neurodevelopmental Outcomes
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Daniel Hwang, Dr Gunn-Helen Moen
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Doctor Philosophy
Multi-omic Approaches to Understanding Septic Shock
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Daniel Hwang
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Doctor Philosophy
Developing and Applying Statistical Genetics Methods to Elucidate the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Nicole Warrington
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Doctor Philosophy
Investigating the association between maternal and fetal HLA-KIR genotypes and offspring birth weight
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Understanding the genetic epidemiology of women's reproductive health
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Gunn-Helen Moen
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Doctor Philosophy
Using multi-omics approaches to characterise determinants of early growth trajectories and their consequences on later life health
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Honorary Professor Jake Gratten, Dr Nicole Warrington
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Using Genetics to Understand the Relationship Between the Intrauterine Environment and Future Offspring Cardiometabolic Risk
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Nicole Warrington
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Detecting and Quantifying the Effect of Assortative mating and Maternal Effects on Statistical Genetics Analyses
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Nicole Warrington
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Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor David Evans directly for media enquiries about:
- Genetics
- Genome-wide association
- Mendelian randomization
- Twin Studies
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