Enhancer-based causal inference preprint

There is a lot of research showing that genetic information in combination with gene expression data can be used to predict causal interactions between genes, on the basis that genetic variation among individuals causes gene expression variation but not vice versa (this PLOS CompBio article is a contribution to the field from our group and has links to earlier work). Anagha Joshi’s group asked if this principle could be extended to other contexts, and in a joint preprint “Causal gene regulatory network inference using enhancer activity as a causal anchor” an affirmative answer is given: variation of epigenetic activity at enhancer elements across multiple cell types or experimental treatments together with gene expression data also predicts causal interactions. The accompanying statistical methods have been implemented in our Findr software.