This article summarizes the contributions from the Genome-wide Association Study group (GWAS group) of the GAW20. The GWAS group contributions focused on topics such as association tests, phenotype imputation, and application of empirical kinships. This summary article reports on promising statistical approaches and findings of the members of the GWAS group applied on real and simulated data which encompass the current topics of epigenetic and pharmacogenomics.

This article proposes a new truncated statistic method (TS) by utilizing a truncated method to find the genes that have a true contribution to the genetic association. The proposed truncated statistic outperforms existing methods. It can be employed to detect novel traits associated genes using GWAS summary data.

Presentation on the consideration of local ancestry of admixed populations, or populations comprised of genetically distinct ancestral populations which can alter their gene flow in unique ways. It was presented at the UNT Transdisciplinary Conference on Ancestral Genomics Research which was held virtually on November 20-21, 2020.

Article investigating exposure to traffic-generated emissions and the potential to alter lung microbiota and immune defenses. Results show that the combined effects of ME and HF diet result in decreased immune surveillance and lung bacterial dysbiosis, which is of significance in lung diseases.