Compare GWAS studies, perform meta-analyses across cohorts, and assess signal replication. Uses GWAS Catalog metadata, study-level statistics, and cross-cohort comparison. Use for evaluating GWAS reproducibility for a trait, meta-analysis sample size and effect-size aggregation, and detecting study heterogeneity (population, design, ancestry).
Discover causal genes for diseases/traits from GWAS data using Open Targets L2G (locus-to-gene) scoring — integrates eQTL, chromatin interaction, and distance evidence. Use for trait-to-gene mapping, drug-target hypothesis generation from GWAS, and replacing the 'nearest gene' heuristic with multi-evidence L2G scores.
Rapid pathogen characterization and drug repurposing for outbreaks. Combines pathogen genomics (NCBI, BVBRC), host immune response (IEDB), drug-target databases (ChEMBL, DGIdb), and literature surveillance (PubMed/EuropePMC). Use for emerging-pathogen profiling, antiviral candidate identification, and outbreak intelligence reporting.
KEGG-based disease-drug-variant network research. Connects diseases to causal genes, drugs to molecular targets, and variants to pathways using KEGG's editorially curated databases (KEGG Disease, Drug, Network, Variant, Pathway). Use for drug repurposing via shared pathways, mechanistic disease-gene-drug networks, and pathway-based target discovery. Distinguishes direct (binding) vs indirect (pathway co-membership) drug-target relationships.
Mendelian randomization (MR) causal inference — does an exposure, risk factor, or biomarker CAUSALLY affect a disease/outcome, using genetic variants as instrumental variables (IEU OpenGWAS / EpiGraphDB MR-EvE). Use this whenever the user asks if X causes Y, whether an observational association is actually causal or just correlation, if a biomarker/trait is a causal risk factor, wants to triangulate epidemiology against genetic evidence, or mentions Mendelian randomization, instrumental-variable analysis, two-sample MR, or genetic causal evidence — even if they never say "MR" (e.g. "is LDL cholesterol actually causal for heart disease?", "does BMI cause type 2 diabetes or just correlate?", "is CRP a causal driver of stroke?"). Covers trait-label resolution, MR effect direction/magnitude, instrument quality (MOE score), method agreement (IVW vs MR-Egger vs weighted median), bidirectional MR for reverse causation, and distinguishing causation from genetic correlation. Not for plain GWAS association lookups (use the GWAS skills) or fitting your own instruments from raw summary statistics.
Meta-analysis / evidence synthesis — pool effect sizes across studies (odds ratios, risk ratios, hazard ratios, mean differences, correlations, GWAS betas) with fixed- or random-effects models, quantify heterogeneity (Q, I², τ²), and build a forest plot. Use when you have results from MULTIPLE studies and need a single pooled estimate, or to synthesize evidence from a systematic review / multiple GWAS / replicated experiments. Handles the error-prone effect-size + standard-error preparation (converting OR/HR/CI, two-group means±SD, proportions, and correlations into the (effect, SE) the pooling step needs).