Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Ewan Birney -- New opportunities / George Davey Smith, Rebecca Richmond, John-Baptiste Pingault -- The meaning of "cause" in genetics / Kate E. Lynch -- Twins and causal inference : leveraging nature's experiment / Tom A. McAdams, Fruhling V. Rijsdijk, Helena M.S. Zavos, and Jean-Baptiste Pingault -- Family-based designs that disentangle inherited factors from pre- and postnatal environmental exposures : in vitro fertilization, discordant sibling pairs, maternal versus paternal comparisons, and adoption designs / Anita Thapar and Frances Rice -- Mendelian randomization : concepts and scope / Rebecca C. Richmond and George Smith Davey -- Polygenic Mendelian randomization / Frank Dudbridge -- Multivariable Mendelian randomization and mediation / Eleanor Sanderson -- Integrating family-based and mendelian randomization designs / Liang-Dar Hwang, Neil M. Davies, Nicole M. Warrington, and David M. Evans -- Causal inference methods to integrate omics and complex traits / Eleonora Porcu, Jennifer Sjaarda, Kaido Lepik, Cristian Carmeli, Liza Darrous, Jonathan Sulc, Ninon Mounier, and Zoltán Kutalik -- Computational tools for causal inference in genetics / Tom G. Richardson, Jie Zheng, and Tom R. Gaunt -- Using Mendelian randomization to improve the design of randomized trials / Brian A. Ference, Michael V. Holmes, George Davey Smith -- Triangulating evidence through the inclusion of genetically informed designs / Marcus R. Munafò, Julian P.T. Higgins, and George Davey Smith.

"Mendelian randomization and related techniques allow researchers to use knowledge about genetic factors that contribute to a disease to predict whether other risk factors, such as environmental exposure, play a part. This volume examines how these approaches allow researchers to make causal inferences about modifiable exposures and how this can benefit public health"-- Provided by publisher.