Faculty Profile

Lars Fritsche

Lars G. Fritsche, PhD

  • Associate Research Scientist, Biostatistics

Dr. Fritsche has a broad background in human genetics and was trained as applied biostatistician. His research objective is to understand the risk factors that influence complex diseases. In contrast to monogenetic diseases, where single genetic variants can decide the fate between healthy and affected, the onset and development of complex diseases is a result of a multitude of risk factors accumulated at birth and during a lifetime. His research includes single-disease-centered genetic studies and broader hospital- and population-based studies that include the utilization of complex and heterogeneous sources of big data (e.g., Michigan Genomics Initiative, UK Biobank) and aims to uncover the interplay and consequences of genetic and non-genetic risk factors that together contribute to the disease-causing burden and/or onset.

  • PhD, University of Regensburg/Regensburg, Germany, 2009
  • MS, University of Regensburg/Regensburg, Germany, 2004

Research Interests:
Complex disease genetics, polygenic risk scores, electronic health records, pharmacogenetics, COVID-19, Long COVID-19

Research Projects:
Polygenic Risk Scores: A main research focus is the use of EHR data in combination with genetics to develop prediction models and tools incl. polygenic risk scores (PRS). PRS are aggregate composite measures of an individual's polygenic risk for a disease; they are often constructed from summary statistics of genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

Cancer polygenic risk scores: https://prsweb.sph.umich.edu

Exposure polygenic risk scores (ExPRS): https://exprsweb.sph.umich.edu

Ma Y.; Patil S.; Zhou X.; Mukherjee B.; Fritsche L. G. (2022) ExPRSweb: An online repository with polygenic risk scores for common health-related exposures. Am J Hum Genet. 2022 Sep 21:S0002-9297(22)00404-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.09.001. Epub ahead of print.

Fritsche L. G.; Ma Y.; Zhang D.; Salvatore M.; Lee S.; Zhou X.; Mukherjee B. (2021) On cross-ancestry cancer polygenic risk scores. PLoS Genet. 2021 Sep 16;17(9):e1009670. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009670. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Fritsche L. G.; Patil S.; Beesley L. J.; VandeHaar P.; Salvatore M.; Ma Y.; Peng R. B.; Taliun D.; Zhou X.; Mukherjee B. (2020) Cancer PRSweb: An Online Repository with Polygenic Risk Scores for Major Cancer Traits and Their Evaluation in Two Independent Biobanks. Am J Hum Genet. 2020 Nov 5;107(5):815-836. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.08.025. Epub 2020 Sep 28.

Fritsche L. G.; Beesley L. J.; VandeHaar P.; Peng R. B.; Salvatore M.; Zawistowski M.; Gagliano Taliun S. A.; Das S.; LeFaive J.; Kaleba E. O.; Klumpner T. T.; Moser S. E.; Blanc V. M.; Brummett C. M.; Kheterpal S.; Abecasis G. R.; Gruber S. B.; Mukherjee B. (2019) Exploring various polygenic risk scores for skin cancer in the phenomes of the Michigan genomics initiative and the UK Biobank with a visual catalog: PRSWeb. PLoS Genet. 2019 Jun 13;15(6):e1008202. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008202. eCollection 2019 Jun.

4636 SPH I
1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Email: larsf@umich.edu
Office: 734-763-2161

For media inquiries: sph.media@umich.edu

Areas of Expertise: Biostatistics,  Cancer,  COVID-19,  Genetics,  Health Informatics,  Precision Health