About

Luke Evans is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. He earned his Ph.D. from Northern Arizona University in 2012. His research focuses on methods for estimating heritability and investigating the genetic architecture of complex traits, with recent work emphasizing human psychiatric disorders. This includes identifying genetic variants that contribute to disorder liability, understanding gene-by-environment interactions, and testing how these factors influence risk prediction. Additionally, he studies selection and adaptation by identifying quantitative and molecular signatures of selection, both recent positive and purifying selection. His work involves large-scale reciprocal transplant experiments to test gene-by-environment interaction hypotheses and to understand how environments shape complex traits, particularly in ecologically and economically important tree genera such as Populus and Salix.

Research topics

• Demography
• Genetics
• Biology
• Evolutionary biology

Selected publications

• A simple approach for multiple observations improves power to detect genetic effects and genomic prediction accuracy

  Human Genetics and Genomics Advances · 2026-03-07

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Many datasets, including widely used biobanks, have more than one observation of numerous phenotypes for at least a portion of their sample. The majority of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) utilize only a single observation per individual, even when more than one observation may be available, and apply a standard model in which the additive allelic effect being estimated is assumed to be constant across the age or time range in the sample. Here, we test a set of simple approaches to utilize multiple observations per individual, under this same assumption, to characterize effects on GWAS power, SNP heritability, gene set enrichment, and polygenic prediction. We find that utilizing the mean or median of the available observations rather than a single observation improves the power to detect associated loci and enriched gene sets and yields higher out-of-sample polygenic score prediction accuracy. Despite growing biobanks, many deeply phenotyped samples are relatively small but have multiple observations. While explicitly modeling age- or time-dependent genetic effects can add nuance to genetic studies and estimates, most GWASs apply a standard, additive-only model; a simple approach of using the mean or median can improve power by reducing "noise" in the phenotype, utilize standard, optimized software, and be particularly impactful for smaller samples, including samples of diverse genetic ancestry existing in widely used biobanks such as the UK Biobank and the Health and Retirement Study.

  PublisherDOI

• Global multi-ancestry genome-wide analyses identify genes and biological pathways associated with thyroid cancer and benign thyroid diseases

  Nature Genetics · 2026-02-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Thyroid diseases are common and highly heritable. We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from 19 biobanks for five thyroid diseases: thyroid cancer (ThC), benign nodular goiter, Graves' disease, lymphocytic thyroiditis and primary hypothyroidism. We analyzed genetic association data from ~2.9 million genomes and identified 313 known and 570 new independent loci linked to thyroid diseases. We discovered genetic correlations between ThC, benign nodular goiter and autoimmune thyroid diseases (rg = 0.16-0.97). Telomere maintenance genes contributed to benign and malignant thyroid nodular disease risk, whereas cell cycle, DNA repair and damage response genes were associated with ThC. We propose a paradigm that explains genetic predisposition to benign and malignant thyroid nodules. We found polygenic risk score associations with ThC risk of structural disease recurrence, tumor size, multifocality, lymph node metastases and extranodal extension. Polygenic risk scores identified individuals with aggressive ThC in a biobank, creating an opportunity for genetically informed population screening.

  PublisherDOI

• Differential DNA methylation clock ages across buffy coat (BC), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and saliva in individuals in early-to-mid adulthood

  Epigenetics · 2026-04-15

  articleOpen access

  = 0.18). Next-generation PCGrimAge and DunedinPace clocks showed consistent zygosity correlations across tissues, while multi-tissue clocks (e.g. ZhangQ) showed comparable MZ-DZ correlations. While saliva-based DNA methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based DNA methylation, BC and PBMC show comparability; nevertheless, all tissue types may be appropriate for DNA methylation aging studies when compared within tissues.

  PublisherDOI

• Differential DNA methylation clock ages across buffy coat (BC), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and saliva in individuals in early-to-mid adulthood

  Figshare · 2026-04-15

  datasetOpen access

  Epigenetic aging prior to midlife is gaining interest as an intervenable period to address health and cognitive aging. Epigenetic changes may index DNA methylation aging rates, but methylation profiles may not be substitutable across tissues. We compared DNA methylation clocks and age acceleration in saliva, buffy coat (BC), and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected in 91 individuals (7 unpaired, 20 siblings, 64 twins; 18 monozygotic (MZ), 14 dizygotic (DZ) pairs) from the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife1; Mean age = 30.90 years [range = 28.07–41.13]; 50.5% female). Across 15 DNA methylation clocks, chronological age and DNA methylation ages were moderately associated (mean Spearman correlations: <i>r</i> = 0.37, Saliva; <i>r</i> = 0.40, BC; <i>r</i> = 0.34, PBMC). In mixed-effects models, saliva showed higher DNA methylation ages (<i>B</i> = 3.77–19.72 years vs BC, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), whereas PBMC and BC were comparable (<i>B</i> = −0.06–0.39 years vs BC, <i>p</i> ≥ 0.436). The exception was the next-generation clock DunedinPace showing comparability (<i>p</i> = 0.486). Similar patterns were observed for age acceleration estimates. Altogether, MZ pairs (meta-analytic <i>r =</i> 0.49, 95%CI = 0.32,0.66) and DZ pairs (meta-analytic <i>r =</i> 0.38, 95%CI = 0.25,0.52) were moderately correlated (Spearman), but MZ pairs showed heterogeneity across tissues (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.034): saliva was lower (mean <i>r =</i> 0.33, <i>SD</i> = 0.25) than BC (mean <i>r =</i> 0.64, <i>SD</i> = 0.10) and PBMC (mean <i>r =</i> 0.49, <i>SD</i> = 0.18). Next-generation PCGrimAge and DunedinPace clocks showed consistent zygosity correlations across tissues, while multi-tissue clocks (e.g. ZhangQ) showed comparable MZ-DZ correlations. While saliva-based DNA methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based DNA methylation, BC and PBMC show comparability; nevertheless, all tissue types may be appropriate for DNA methylation aging studies when compared within tissues. Saliva-based methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based methylation.Saliva-based DNA methylation clocks demonstrated relatively older methylation ages and faster age accelerations relative to blood-based DNA methylation clocks.Blood-based DNA methylation clocks were comparable across buffy coat and peripheral blood mononuclear cell tissues.Twin similarity, particularly among identical twins, was higher for blood-based DNA methylation clocks and newer generation DNA methylation clocks.Three clocks (one first-generation multi-tissue and two next-generation) showed consistency and/or comparability across tissues and showed moderate to strong correlations among identical and fraternal twins, supporting the importance of tool development. Saliva-based methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based methylation. Saliva-based DNA methylation clocks demonstrated relatively older methylation ages and faster age accelerations relative to blood-based DNA methylation clocks. Blood-based DNA methylation clocks were comparable across buffy coat and peripheral blood mononuclear cell tissues. Twin similarity, particularly among identical twins, was higher for blood-based DNA methylation clocks and newer generation DNA methylation clocks. Three clocks (one first-generation multi-tissue and two next-generation) showed consistency and/or comparability across tissues and showed moderate to strong correlations among identical and fraternal twins, supporting the importance of tool development.

  PublisherDOI

• Lifetime Number of Sexual Partners: A Measure of Risk-Taking Behavior or Reproductive Fitness?

  Research Square · 2026-04-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Differential DNA methylation clock ages across buffy coat (BC), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and saliva in individuals in early-to-mid adulthood

  Figshare · 2026-04-15

  datasetOpen access

  Epigenetic aging prior to midlife is gaining interest as an intervenable period to address health and cognitive aging. Epigenetic changes may index DNA methylation aging rates, but methylation profiles may not be substitutable across tissues. We compared DNA methylation clocks and age acceleration in saliva, buffy coat (BC), and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected in 91 individuals (7 unpaired, 20 siblings, 64 twins; 18 monozygotic (MZ), 14 dizygotic (DZ) pairs) from the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife1; Mean age = 30.90 years [range = 28.07–41.13]; 50.5% female). Across 15 DNA methylation clocks, chronological age and DNA methylation ages were moderately associated (mean Spearman correlations: <i>r</i> = 0.37, Saliva; <i>r</i> = 0.40, BC; <i>r</i> = 0.34, PBMC). In mixed-effects models, saliva showed higher DNA methylation ages (<i>B</i> = 3.77–19.72 years vs BC, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), whereas PBMC and BC were comparable (<i>B</i> = −0.06–0.39 years vs BC, <i>p</i> ≥ 0.436). The exception was the next-generation clock DunedinPace showing comparability (<i>p</i> = 0.486). Similar patterns were observed for age acceleration estimates. Altogether, MZ pairs (meta-analytic <i>r =</i> 0.49, 95%CI = 0.32,0.66) and DZ pairs (meta-analytic <i>r =</i> 0.38, 95%CI = 0.25,0.52) were moderately correlated (Spearman), but MZ pairs showed heterogeneity across tissues (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.034): saliva was lower (mean <i>r =</i> 0.33, <i>SD</i> = 0.25) than BC (mean <i>r =</i> 0.64, <i>SD</i> = 0.10) and PBMC (mean <i>r =</i> 0.49, <i>SD</i> = 0.18). Next-generation PCGrimAge and DunedinPace clocks showed consistent zygosity correlations across tissues, while multi-tissue clocks (e.g. ZhangQ) showed comparable MZ-DZ correlations. While saliva-based DNA methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based DNA methylation, BC and PBMC show comparability; nevertheless, all tissue types may be appropriate for DNA methylation aging studies when compared within tissues. Saliva-based methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based methylation.Saliva-based DNA methylation clocks demonstrated relatively older methylation ages and faster age accelerations relative to blood-based DNA methylation clocks.Blood-based DNA methylation clocks were comparable across buffy coat and peripheral blood mononuclear cell tissues.Twin similarity, particularly among identical twins, was higher for blood-based DNA methylation clocks and newer generation DNA methylation clocks.Three clocks (one first-generation multi-tissue and two next-generation) showed consistency and/or comparability across tissues and showed moderate to strong correlations among identical and fraternal twins, supporting the importance of tool development. Saliva-based methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based methylation. Saliva-based DNA methylation clocks demonstrated relatively older methylation ages and faster age accelerations relative to blood-based DNA methylation clocks. Blood-based DNA methylation clocks were comparable across buffy coat and peripheral blood mononuclear cell tissues. Twin similarity, particularly among identical twins, was higher for blood-based DNA methylation clocks and newer generation DNA methylation clocks. Three clocks (one first-generation multi-tissue and two next-generation) showed consistency and/or comparability across tissues and showed moderate to strong correlations among identical and fraternal twins, supporting the importance of tool development.

  PublisherDOI

• Development and validation of an electronic health record-based frailty index in the UK Biobank

  The Journals of Gerontology Series A · 2026-05-19

  articleSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Frailty, an age-related loss of the ability to withstand stressors, is commonly measured using health deficit indices, often using survey or questionnaire data. We aimed to develop an electronic frailty index (eFI) using electronic health record (EHR) data linkages in the UK Biobank and assess its association with mortality. METHODS: We calculated an eFI using 43 deficits, each corresponding to phecodes mapped to the United Kingdom (UK) and international classification coding systems. We compared this eFI to a validated 49-item survey-based FI for the UK Biobank and assessed associations of the eFI with risk of all-cause mortality (follow-up ≤ 10.2 years) and mortality following a stressor (heart attack or stroke) using Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS: Mean eFI in this cohort (N = 208,982) was 0.058 (SD = 0.06) and was higher in females than males. A 10% higher baseline frailty was associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR(95%CI)=2.00(1.93-2.07)), although the magnitude of this association decreased when adjusting for socioeconomic-related covariates (HR(95%CI)=1.44(1.38-1.51)). Associations were stronger in men than women. eFI predicted mortality following both heart attack and stroke (HR(95%CI)=1.59(1.25-2.04) and HR = 1.33(1.13-1.57), respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This EHR-based eFI has robust associations with mortality, suggesting that it can be used as a valid measure of frailty in the UK Biobank and can potentially be applied to other datasets with EHR data.

  PublisherDOI

• Differential DNA methylation clock ages across buffy coat (BC), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and saliva in individuals in early-to-mid adulthood

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-09-18

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract Epigenetic aging prior to midlife is gaining interest as an intervenable period to address health and cognitive aging. Epigenetic changes may index DNA methylation aging rates, but methylation profiles may not be substitutable across tissues. We compared DNA methylation clocks and age acceleration in saliva, buffy coat (BC), and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected in 91 individuals (7 unpaired, 20 siblings, 64 twins; 18 monozygotic (MZ), 14 dizygotic (DZ) pairs) from the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife1; Mean age=30.90 years [range=28.07–41.13]; 50.5% female). Across 15 DNA methylation clocks, chronological age and DNA methylation ages were moderately associated (mean Spearman correlations: r =0.37, Saliva; r =0.41, BC; r =0.38, PBMC). In mixed-effects models, saliva showed higher DNA methylation ages ( B =3.83–16.46 years vs BC, p&lt;0.001), whereas PBMC and BC were comparable ( B =-0.06–0.39 years vs BC, p &gt; 0.447). The exception was the next-generation clock DunedinPace showing comparability ( p =0.486). Similar patterns were observed for age acceleration estimates. Altogether, MZ pairs (meta-analytic r= 0.49, 95%CI=0.32,0.66) and DZ pairs (meta-analytic r= 0.38, 95%CI=0.25,0.52) were moderately correlated (Spearman), but MZ pairs showed heterogeneity across tissues ( p &lt;0.020): saliva was lower (mean r= 0.33, SD =0.25) than BC (mean r= 0.64, SD =0.10) and PBMC (mean r= 0.49, SD =0.18). Next-generation PCGrimAge and DunedinPace clocks showed consistent zygosity correlations across tissues, while multi-tissue clocks (e.g., ZhangQ) showed comparable MZ-DZ correlations. While saliva-based DNA methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based DNA methylation, BC and PBMC show comparability; nevertheless, all tissue types may be appropriate for DNA methylation aging studies when compared within tissues. Key Policy Highlights Saliva-based methylation is not a direct substitute for blood-based methylation. Saliva-based DNA methylation clocks demonstrated relatively older methylation ages and faster age accelerations relative to blood-based DNA methylation clocks. Blood-based DNA methylation clocks were comparable across buffy coat and peripheral blood mononuclear cell tissues. Twin similarity, particularly among identical twins, was higher for blood-based DNA methylation clocks and newer generation DNA methylation clocks. Three clocks (one first-generation multi-tissue and two next-generation) showed consistency and/or comparability across tissues and showed moderate to strong correlations among identical and fraternal twins, supporting the importance of tool development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Error Breakdown and Sensitivity Analysis of Dynamical Quantities in Markov State Models

  Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation · 2025-12-01 · 1 citations

  article

  Markov state models (MSMs) are widely employed to analyze the kinetics of complex systems. But despite their effectiveness in many applications, MSMs are prone to systematic or statistical errors, often exacerbated by suboptimal hyperparameter choice. In this article, we attempt to understand how these choices affect the error of estimates of mean first-passage times and committors, key quantities in chemical rate theory. We first evaluate the performance of the recently introduced “stopped-process estimator” [Strahan, J. Long-time-scale predictions from short-trajectory data: A benchmark analysis of the trp-cage miniprotein. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2021, 17, 2948–2963. 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00933.] that attempts to reduce error caused by choosing a too-large lag time. We then study the effect of statistical errors on Markov state model construction using the condition number, which measures an MSM’s sensitivity to perturbation. This analysis helps give an insight into which factors cause an MSM to be more or less sensitive to statistical error. Our work highlights the importance of choosing a good sampling measure, the measure from which the initial points are drawn, and has implications for recent work applying a variational principle for evaluating the committor.

  PublisherDOI

• Publisher Correction: Genome-wide association meta-analysis of childhood ADHD symptoms and diagnosis identifies new loci and potential effector genes

  Nature Genetics · 2025-09-29 · 1 citations

  erratumOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Matthew C. Keller

  University of Colorado Boulder

  50 shared

• Marissa A. Ehringer

  35 shared

• Teemu Palviainen

  University of Helsinki

  31 shared

• Richard Border

  University of California, Los Angeles

  31 shared

• Jaakko Kaprio

  Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland

  29 shared

• Jordi Sunyer

  Pompeu Fabra University

  28 shared

• John K. Hewitt

  25 shared

• Thomas G. Whitham

  Northern Arizona University

  22 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  Northern Arizona University

  2012

Awards & honors

• Summer Multicultural Access to Research Training (SMART)
• UROP
• Biological Science Initiative Scholars
• Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship