Transfer learning for genomic prediction in underrepresented populations

Google Research · 1 month ago · 8

A study evaluated how polygenic risk score training strategies transfer from European GWAS data to Japanese samples across eight clinical traits. The largest dataset transferability tests compared training when the target-population (Biobank Japan) sample size reached 15,000 and found that European-only pooling helped only below that cutoff. Model performance then crossed over and increasingly favored target-population-specific training as Biobank Japan sample sizes grew, with conserved traits retaining benefits longer and population-specific traits favoring alternative methods like cross-population meta-analysis.