

 Mendelian Randomization: getting genes to run randomized trials for you  - jgrahamc
http://www.jgc.org/blog/2010/01/mendelian-randomization-getting-genes.html

======
carbocation
My lab has done lipoprotein Mendelian randomization. It is certainly a useful
technique. The article linked here doesn't really address any of the
technique's shortcomings, and those are important to know. For example,
population stratification can affect your conclusions, and pleiotropy can lead
to biased enrollment. For more info, see (free article)
<http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/163/5/397>

------
TrevorBurnham
"In the case of low serum cholesterol there's a specific allele associated
with Apolipoprotein E. The variant Apo E2 is associated with low serum
cholesterol. And because of Mendel's law of independent assortment it will be
assigned randomly in the population." Wait, what? This is only true for a
population in which everyone has one parent with Apo E2 and one without it.
The post seems to skip over that important caveat.

