- Location
- Virtual
- Series/Type
- DLSPH Event
- Dates
- June 4, 2021 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Links
A Bayesian network approach incorporating imputation of missing data enables exploratory analysis of complex causal biological relationships
Abstract:
Bayesian networks can be used to identify possible causal relationships between variables based on their conditional dependencies and independencies, which can be particularly useful in complex biological scenarios with many measured variables. When there is missing data, the standard approach is to remove every individual with any missing data before performing analysis. This can be wasteful and undesirable when there are many individuals with missing data, perhaps with only one or a few variables missing. This motivates the use of imputation. We present a new imputation method designed to increase the power to detect causal relationships, where the data may include a mixture of both discrete and continuous variables. Our method uses a version of nearest neighbour imputation, whereby missing data from one individual is replaced with data from another individual, their nearest neighbour. For each individual with missing data, the subsets of variables to be used to select the nearest neighbour are chosen by sampling without replacement the complete data and estimating a best fit Bayesian network. We show that this approach leads to marked improvements in the recall and precision of directed edges in the final network identified. We illustrate the approach through application to data from a recent study investigating the causal relationship between methylation and gene expression in early inflammatory arthritis patients.