Wenhan Lu

Short CV

Research

I began my academic journey in mathematics as an undergraduate and soon became interested in applying theoretical concepts to real-world problems. This interest led me to pursue a master’s in biostatistics, where I connected mathematical training with large, multidimensional biological data. At the Broad Institute, I became deeply engaged in genetics through exposure to large-scale datasets and the biological mechanisms underlying complex traits. I am excited to join the Complex Trait Genetics department at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as a remote PhD student to further deepen my expertise in statistical genetics and human biology.

My research focuses on generating and analyzing large-scale genetic association data by developing computational pipelines and statistical methods to understand the functional and pleiotropic roles of rare coding variants. I currently lead the All-by-All project within the All of Us Research Program, producing and analyzing genome-wide and rare variant associations across thousands of traits and diverse ancestry groups. In the meantime, I am developing methods to estimate the distribution of rare variant effect sizes and their contribution to heritability.

Highlighted publications

Lu, W., Gauthier, L. D., Poterba, T., Giacopuzzi, E., Goodrich, J. K., Stevens, C. R., King, D., Daly, M. J., Neale, B. M. &
Karczewski, K. J. CHARR efficiently estimates contamination from DNA sequencing data. The American Journal of Human
Genetics 110, 2068–2076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.10.011 (2023).

Lu, W., Chen, S., Posthuma, D., Neale, B. M., OConnor, L. J. & Karczewski, K. J. Effect heterogeneity reveals complex
pleiotropic effects of rare coding variants. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.01.614806 (2024).

Social Media:

Twitter: @lu_wenhan

Awards:

ASHG Trainee Research Excellence Award, Predoctoral Semifinalist, 2025