This seminar is hosted in collaboration between the research group Statistics and Data Science ad the Department of Mathematics at University of Oslo.
Title
High dimensional regression methods for inhomogeneous Poisson processes via split-variational inference
Abstract
Recent advances in fine-mapping—the task of narrowing a set of highly correlated associations to putative causal variants—have shown great promise. However, most existing approaches overlook the spatial structure of molecular traits measured by sequencing assays, and to our knowledge, none are tailored to the overdispersed nature of these count data. We propose Poisson-fSuSiE, a fine-mapping method for inhomogeneous Poisson processes aimed at molecular traits from sequence-based assays. To maintain computational efficiency, we introduce Split Variational Inference, a variational empirical-Bayes (EB) procedure that alternates between two fast steps: (i) a convex Poisson mean update and (ii) closed-form EB updates for flexible priors on functional coefficients. Split Variational Inference applied to Poisson fSuSiE yields scalable inference while preserving uncertainty quantification. In simulations spanning diverse correlation structures, effect patterns, and overdispersed counts models, our method achieves higher power and better calibration of posterior inclusion probabilities (PIPs) and credible sets compared to transform-based alternatives. We further apply Poisson-fSuSiE to a recently published dataset containing RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, and H3K4me1 sequencing measurements, where it identifies compact, concordant credible sets that overlap independent signals—demonstrating applicability across multiple sequencing assays.
Bio
William R.P. Denault is a researcher at Integreat, OCBE-OUS. He focuses on statistical genetics. He got his Ph.D. at the University of Bergen under the supervison of Haakon Gjessing and Astanand Jugessur.
Speaker is presenting in person.
Practical
The Tuesdays seminars series are devoted to various topics relevant for the Integreat´s research focus. Presenters from the Integreat community and beyond have 40 minutes to present, followed by a group discussion.
Seminars are open for attendance for everybody.
For those unable to attend in person: https://uio.zoom.us/j/62535744013
Point of contacts:
- Organiser and moderator: Leiv Rønneberg, University of Oslo
- Integreat Administrative Leader Maria Dikova, University of Oslo