
Institute for Behavioral Genetics
University of Colorado Boulder
447 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0447
Research Interests:
Developing models to understand complex trait genetics. Using family-based GWAS datasets to estimate direct genetic effects and the environmental influences of parents on offspring. Modeling and simulating genetically informative designs that better enable us to understand the causes of human differences.
Active Grants:
- NIMH R01 MH130448 7/2022-6/2027 Causes and consequences of mental disorders: The environmental and genetic influences of parents on offspring. Role: Principal investigator
- NIMH 2R01 MH100141 2/2013-4/2023 Estimating the genetic and environmental architecture of psychiatric disorders. Role: Principal investigator
- NIMH R25 MH019918 2/2024-1/2029 Workshop on statistical genetic methods for human complex traits. Role: Principal investigator
- NIDA R01 DA054087 5/1/2022 – 4/30/2027 Understanding the links between parental and adolescent substance use: complementary natural experiments using the children of twins design. Role: Co-Principal investigator
- NIDA R01 DA046064 4/2018-1/2023 Brain and genetic predictors of individual differences in pain and placebo analgesia. Role: Co-investigator
- NIDA R01 DA044283 5/2019 – 2/2024 Deep sequencing, phenotyping, and imputation in large-scale biobanks: A novel and cost-effective framework to identify rare mutations associated with addiction. Role: Principal investigator of subcontract
- NIDA R01 DA053693 4/2024 – 3/2028 Adult Progression of Adolescent Onset Substance Use Disorder in a High Risk Sample. Role: Co-investigator
Additional Resources:
Current Lab






Former Trainees
Spencer Moore
Masters student
2020-2022
Jared Balbona
Doctoral student
2018-2022
Richard Border
Doctoral student
2014-2019
Emma Johnson
Doctoral student
2012-2017
Teresa de Candia
Doctoral student
2011-2015
Matthew Simonson
Doctoral student
2008-2013
Dan Howrigan
Doctoral student
2008-2012
Laramie Duncan
Doctoral student
2008-2010
Subrata Paul
Postdoctoral trainee
2020-2021
Meng Huang
Postdoctoral trainee
2020-2021
Rasool Tahmasbi
Postdoctoral trainee
2015-2018
Luke Evans
Postdoctoral trainee
2015-2018
Doug Bjelland
Postdoctoral trainee
2013-2016
Christine Garver-Apgar
Postdoctoral trainee
2008-2011
Genomic partitioning of inbreeding depression in humans
Publication Date: 2021-08-05
Type: Journal Article
Identifying nootropic drug targets via large-scale cognitive GWAS and transcriptomics
Publication Date: 2021-05-25
Type: Journal Article
Novel approach for parallelizing pairwise comparison problems as applied to detecting segments identical by decent in whole-genome data
Publication Date: 2021-03-11
Type: Journal Article
Genetic architecture of four smoking behaviors using partitioned SNP heritability
Publication Date: 2021-03-05
Type: Journal Article
Phenotypic covariance across the entire spectrum of relatedness for 86 billion pairs of individuals
Publication Date: 2021-02-16
Type: Journal Article
Estimation of Parental Effects Using Polygenic Scores
Publication Date: 2021-01-02
Type: Journal Article
Bias and Precision of Parameter Estimates from Models Using Polygenic Scores to Estimate Environmental and Genetic Parental Influences
Publication Date: 2020-12-10
Type: Journal Article
The Role of A Priori-Identified Addiction and Smoking Gene Sets in Smoking Behaviors
Evans LM; Johnson EC; Melroy-Greif WE; Hewitt JK; Hoeffer CA; Keller MC; Saba LM; Stitzel JA; Ehringer MA...
- Evans LM
- Johnson EC
- Melroy-Greif WE
- Hewitt JK
- Hoeffer CA
- Keller MC
- Saba LM
- Stitzel JA
- Ehringer MA
Publication Date: 2020-08-01
Type: Journal Article
No significant interaction between rs16969968 and genome-wide loci to predict cigarettes per day in the UK Biobank
Publication Date: 2020-06-26
Type: Conference Proceeding
Do modifiable risk factors moderate the effect of APOE on cognitive decline?
Publication Date: 2020-06-26
Type: Conference Proceeding
Investigating heterogenous genetic effects contributing to smoking behavior using the UK Biobank
Publication Date: 2020-06-26
Type: Conference Proceeding
Do common and rare variants work together on the same gene to affect phenotype?
Publication Date: 2020-06-26
Type: Conference Proceeding
Nature of nurture analysis via structural equation modeling
Publication Date: 2020-06-26
Type: Conference Proceeding
The nature of nurture revisited: estimating the effect of vertical transmission using structural equation modeling
Publication Date: 2020-06-26
Type: Conference Proceeding
Identification and characterization of common genetic risk factors for chronic pain and psychopathology
Publication Date: 2020-06-26
Type: Conference Proceeding
Nick Martin as a Mentor - A Perspective
Publication Date: 2020-04-01
Type: Journal Article
No Evidence for Social Genetic Effects or Genetic Similarity Among Friends Beyond that Due to Population Stratification: A Reappraisal of Domingue et al (2018)
Publication Date: 2019-11-11
Type: Journal Article
The etiology of DSM-5 alcohol use disorder: Evidence of shared and non-shared additive genetic effects
Palmer RHC; Brick LA; Chou Y-L; Agrawal A; McGeary JE; Heath AC; Bierut L; Keller MC; Johnson E; Hartz SM...
- Palmer RHC
- Brick LA
- Chou Y-L
- Agrawal A
- McGeary JE
- Heath AC
- Bierut L
- Keller MC
- Johnson E
- Hartz SM
Publication Date: 2019-08-01
Type: Journal Article
Pleiotropic Meta-Analysis of Cognition, Education, and Schizophrenia Differentiates Roles of Early Neurodevelopmental and Adult Synaptic Pathways
Publication Date: 2019-08-01
Type: Journal Article
Measurement Error Cannot Account for Failed Replications of Historic Candidate Gene-by-Environment Hypotheses: Response to Vrshek-Schallhorn et al.
Publication Date: 2019-08-01
Type: Journal Article
Imputation of behavioral candidate gene repeat variants in 486,551 publicly-available UK Biobank individuals
Border R; Smolen A; Corley RP; Stallings MC; Brown SA; Conger RD; Derringer J; Donnellan MB; Haberstick BC; Hewitt JK...
- Border R
- Smolen A
- Corley RP
- Stallings MC
- Brown SA
- Conger RD
- Derringer J
- Donnellan MB
- Haberstick BC
- Hewitt JK
Publication Date: 2019-06-01
Type: Journal Article
Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function (vol 9, 2098, 2018)
Davies G; Lam M; Harris SE; Trampush JW; Luciano M; Hill WD; Hagenaars SP; Ritchie SJ; Marioni RE; Fawns-Ritchie C...
- Davies G
- Lam M
- Harris SE
- Trampush JW
- Luciano M
- Hill WD
- Hagenaars SP
- Ritchie SJ
- Marioni RE
- Fawns-Ritchie C
Publication Date: 2019-05-01
Type: Journal Article
No Support for Historical Candidate Gene or Candidate Gene-by-Interaction Hypotheses for Major Depression Across Multiple Large Samples
Publication Date: 2019-05-01
Type: Journal Article
Gene expression imputation across multiple brain regions provides insights into schizophrenia risk
Huckins LM; Dobbyn A; Ruderfer DM; Hoffman G; Wang W; Pardinas AF; Rajagopal VM; Als TD; Nguyen HT; Girdhar K...
- Huckins LM
- Dobbyn A
- Ruderfer DM
- Hoffman G
- Wang W
- Pardinas AF
- Rajagopal VM
- Als TD
- Nguyen HT
- Girdhar K
Publication Date: 2019-04-01
Type: Journal Article
Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use
Publication Date: 2019-02-01
Type: Journal Article
Pages
Recruiting
The Keller lab is recruiting new graduate students.
Contact Matt Keller directly about postdoctoral trainee positions.