Paul O'Reilly

Paul O'Reilly is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He joined Mount Sinai in 2019 after previous positions at King's College London and Imperial College London, where he completed his PhD under David Balding and became faculty in 2011. His research focuses on developing statistical methods to understand genetic contributions to disease.

Research Interests: Dr. O'Reilly leads the PRS Lab, specializing in computational approaches to understand how genetic variation and environmental factors contribute to disease. The lab's core research themes include:

• Pathway-specific function-informed polygenic risk scores
• Improving PRS for diverse and admixed populations
• Using genetics to infer environmental causes of disease
• Statistical genetics of brain disorders

Publication Focus: His recent work demonstrates strong emphasis on methodological innovations in polygenic risk scoring, with applications spanning schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and population genetics. The publications frequently involve software development (PRSice-2, BridgePRS) and address challenges in genetic portability across diverse populations.

Team Leadership: Dr. O'Reilly directs a research team including postdoctoral scientists and computational biologists working on statistical genetics projects. The lab actively recruits students and postdocs through advertised positions.

Lab Initiatives: The PRS Lab has helped establish Mount Sinai's Data Ark data commons and participates in CEYE, a program providing research opportunities for underrepresented NYC high school students.