Genetics

This post covers the Nature Genetics version of Zeng, Khan and colleagues' multi-ancestry MS GWAS, focusing on what the peer-reviewed version adds beyond the cell-type result: the STAT3 risk variant's association with cognition and neurite density in 33,224 UK Biobank participants without MS, and with faster serum neurofilament light accumulation in 3,480 people with MS, supporting a reframing of MS susceptibility as partly a question of CNS resilience. It also covers the 23.2% heritability estimate, the SMARCA2-STAT3 convergence across ancestries, the reproduction numbers behind the inhibitory-neuron finding, the gap between adjusted and crude AUC in the polygenic score, and the open-chromatin gap the authors set in context.