Autoencoder-based phenotyping of ophthalmic images highlights genetic loci influencing retinal morphology and provides epidemiologically informative biomarkers

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been remarkably successful in identifying associations between genetic variation and imaging-derived phenotypes. To date, the main focus of these analyses has been established, clinically-used imaging features. Here, we sought to investigate if deep learning approaches can help detect more nuanced patterns of image variability. To this end, we used an autoencoder to represent retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) images from 31,135 UK Biobank participants. For each study subject, we obtained a 64-dimensional vector representing features of retinal structure. GWAS of these autoencoder-derived imaging parameters identified 113 genome-wide-significant loci. These encompassed variants previously linked with retinal thickness measurements, ophthalmic disorders and/or neurodegenerative conditions (including dementia). Notably, the generated retinal phenotypes were found to contribute to predictive models for glaucoma and cardiovascular disorders. Overall, we demonstrate that self-supervised phenotyping of OCT images enhances the discoverability of genetic factors influencing retinal morphology and provides epidemiologically informative biomarkers. ### Competing Interest Statement E.B. is a paid consultant and equity holder of Oxford Nanopore, a paid consultant to Dovetail, and a non-executive director of Genomics England, a limited company wholly owned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care. All other authors declare no competing interests. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by: the Wellcome Trust (224643/Z/21/Z, Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship to P.I.S.); the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Lecturer Programme (CL-2017-06-001 to P.I.S.); the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) (A.D., K.G., E.B., T.F.). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The study used available human data that were originally located at the UK Biobank resource. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes DATA AVAILABILITY UK Biobank data are available under restricted access through a procedure described at . All other data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article (including its supplementary information files). CODE AVAILABILITY The scripts used to analyse the datasets included in this study are available at .