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THE 2025 IN-PERSON INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL GENETIC (ISG) WORKSHOP FOR HUMAN COMPLEX TRAITS: THE MOLECULAR GENETICS COURSE 

MARCH 3rd – MARCH 7th, 2025 

The next ISG workshop will be held in Boulder, Colorado, March 3rd-7th 2025. The course is planned to include sessions on: causes of variation; biometrical genetics; UNIX/R scripting; whole-genome data generation, cleaning and QC; population genetics, GWAS; imputation; stratification; family-based association; meta-analysis, polygenic risk scores; SNP-heritability and correlation; ascertainment; mendelian randomization; biological annotation; pathway analysis; fine mapping; colocalization; HAIL; JULIA, R, responsible conduct of research. For more information, see /ibg/workshop. 

Hands-on analysis will be emphasized, using students’ own laptops or ones we provide. Participants are strongly advised to have familiarity with R programming before attending the workshop. For those not familiar with R or wishing to brush up on topics to be presented at the workshop, see our persistent online lectures and practicals from previous virtual workshops at /ibg/isgw-online.  

Planning Committee for the 2025 ISG workshop:

• Ben Neale (Academic Director, 2025 workshop)
• Dave Evans (Associate Director, 2025 workshop)  
• Hermine Maes (Academic Director, 2024 workshop) 
• Michel Nivard (Associate Director, 2024 workshop) 
• Sarah Medland (Director of Online Content) 
• Abdel Abdellaoui (Associate Director of Online Content) 
• Jeffrey Lessem (IT director) 
• Matthew Keller (Principal Investigator)

The outstanding international faculty roster includes:  

• Ben Neale, Wei Zhou, Duncan Palmer, Dan Howrigan, Karen Sittig. Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA

• David Evans, Loic Yengo, Alesha Hatton. Program in Complex Trait Genetics, University of Queensland, Australia

• Joseph Powell. Garvan Institute for Medical Research, University of South Wales, Australia

• Sarah Medland, Brittany Mitchell. QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Australia 

• Matt Keller, Jeff Lessem, Luke Evans, Andrew Grotzinger, Dan Gustavson, Kristen Kelly. Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado at Boulder, CO, USA

• Barbara Stranger Department of Biomedical Information, University of Colorado School of Medicine

• Hermine Maes, Madhur Singh. Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

• Elizabeth Prom-Wormley. Dept. of Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

• Michel Nivard. Genetic Epidemiology, University of Bristol

• Abdel Abdellaoui. Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Financial support for this workshop is provided by the National Institute of Mental Health grant MH19918 and our corporate sponsor, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Registration

Registration will open at noon GMT on October 16, 2024. The registration fee is $850 for individuals with an academic appointment and $1000 for individuals with non-academic positions. This fee is payable at the time of registration using a credit card at the Eventbrite workshop page ().  ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ affiliates should directly charge their registration cost to a speedtype, so please contact the workshop coordinator (IBGworkshop@colorado.edu) for a promo code prior to registering.

Cancellations after February 1st, 2025 will be non-refundable. Additional information about the schedule, registration, and course materials is available at /ibg/workshop-2025 or from the workshop coordinator (IBGworkshop@colorado.edu).

Travel

You should make your own travel plans; please see our website for further information on the hotel, air and ground transportation: /ibg/workshop-2025/workshop-2025-venue-travel-and-lodging. 

Venue & Lodging

The workshop will be held at the St. Julien Hotel, located in downtown Boulder a block from the shops and dining on the historic Pearl Street pedestrian mall. Most students choose to stay at the St. Julien. The workshop will have a limited number of student rooms available at a special rate of $210 per night for a single or double which is a fantastic price for a hotel in Boulder. Attendees unable to get a room at the St. Julien, or who choose not to, may stay at other nearby locations, including the Hotel Boulderado, the Boulder University Inn, the Foot of the Mountain Inn, and numerous short-term rentals (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.).

There will be an informal welcome reception on Sunday evening, March 2nd, from 4:00-8:00 p.m. There will be another reception on Monday evening from 5:30-8:00 p.m. You are invited to join us for drinks and hors d'oeuvres before you go off for dinner. These are excellent opportunities for colleagues to informally discuss ideas. In addition, there will be a poster session on Wednesday evening (please bring a poster to display if you wish), and a farewell party on Friday evening, March 7th so plan accordingly if you want to attend. 

The workshop begins at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, March 3rd, in the Xanadu Ballroom of the hotel, and ends at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 7th. The registration desk will open at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 2nd and again at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, March 3rd for participants to check-in. Note that there are also optional sessions at 8:00 a.m. most days, including the first Monday morning. Breakfast, lunch and mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffee breaks will be provided. Breakfast will be held at 8:00 a.m. outside of the Xanadu Ballroom; this is also where the mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks will be held. This year we will also provide lunches every day except Thursday, when students will be encouraged to take a break from the hotel and get lunch at one of the many nearby restaurants. You will be on your own for dinner, which can be obtained in the hotel or nearby shops and restaurants conveniently located in Downtown Boulder.

For those of you staying over before or after the workshop, we make no special social or other arrangements for you. However, as you will very quickly discover if you do not already know, Boulder offers a wide variety of recreational opportunities both in the town and further in the plains, foothills, and Rocky Mountains. Most people associate the area with outdoor activities, but Boulder is also well served by its restaurants, bookshops, coffee shops, breweries, and pubs. At this time of year, skiing is a favorite activity. The nearest ski area, Eldora, is only 30 minutes away by car or bus, and the world-class resorts of Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper Mountain, and others are about 2 hours by car. Rocky Mountain National Park is just an hour away. 

ISG Workshop Financial Aid

To increase diversity at the workshop, financial support is available for those (a) from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from socially, culturally, economically, or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and/or (b) who can demonstrate financial hardship that would affect their ability to attend the workshop. This financial aid is in the form of a reduced registration rate (from $850 to $200). In addition, for U.S. citizens and permanent residents who meet these criteria, the financial aid will also cover up to $1,000 of your workshop attendance costs (in the form of a $1,000 reimbursement check; receipts must be turned in to IBGworkshop@colorado.edu after the workshop). 

To apply, applicants should register for the workshop first () and then fill out the scholarship application form here: . Applicants will need to upload a current CV and a letter from their supervisor attesting that they meet the financial aid qualifications. The deadline for applying for financial aid is November 30, 2024. We will notify applicants of our decision in early December, at which time recipients will receive a $400 credit (reducing the registration fee to $200). We are restricted to providing 10 scholarships in 2025. Note that all registrants have the option to cancel their registration before February 1, 2025 for a full refund (minus a $30 Eventbrite charge).

Please note that the ISG workshop financial aid is different than the International Scholarship and Cultural Exchange Program (ISCEP), an all-expense paid scholarship that funds three international students from developing countries to attend the workshop, made possible by a generous donation from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Individuals who were not awarded the ISCEP scholarship may still apply for financial aid (recipients of the ISCEP scholarship should not apply).