Career Development Fellow

Growth and Development

Left the Unit in 2014

Work and interests

Cathy was a Career Development Fellow in the Growth and Development group at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, who left in autumn 2014. After studying Natural Sciences and specialising in Genetics, at King’s College Cambridge, Cathy trained for an MPhil in Epidemiology at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, also at Cambridge.

Background and experience

Keen to combine her interests in genetics and human health sciences, Cathy began a PhD in Genetic Epidemiology at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, focussing on understanding genetic determinants of growth and development. She had a lead role in performing genome-wide association studies for puberty timing both in Unit-led studies and as part of the international ReproGen consortium, and also worked on exploring patterns of weight gain and growth during infancy and childhood that are related to later obesity risk.

Cathy’s postdoctoral research spanned the Aetiology of Diabetes and Related Metabolic Disorders and the Growth and Development programmes of the Unit. Her research interests are centred on understanding how factors relating to growth and development influence later risk of type 2 diabetes. Whilst continuing to use both classic and genetic epidemiology to address this, Cathy’s major focus was on understanding how epigenetic factors are implicated in the orchestration of puberty timing and the development of type 2 diabetes.

Publications

• MRC Epidemiology Unit publications on the Publications Database
• For a complete and up to date list of publications, please see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Elks+CE

Selected publications

Original research

1. Elks CE, Ong KK, Scott RA, van der Schouw YT, Brand JS, Wark PA, Amiano P, Balkau B, Barricarte A, Boeing H, Fonseca-Nunes A, Franks PW, Grioni S, Halkjaer J, Kaaks R, Key TJ, Khaw KT, Mattiello A, Nilsson PM, Overvad K, Palli D, Quirós JR, Rinaldi S, Rolandsson O, Romieu I, Sacerdote C, Sánchez MJ, Spijkerman AM, Tjonneland A, Tormo MJ, Tumino R, van der A DL, Forouhi NG, Sharp SJ, Langenberg C, Riboli E, Wareham NJ; InterAct Consortium. Age at menarche and type 2 diabetes risk: the EPIC-InterAct study. Diabetes Care. 2013 Nov;36(11):3526-34.
2. Elks CE, Loos RJF, Hardy R, Wills AK, Wong A, Wareham NJ, Kuh D, Ong KK. Adult obesity susceptibility variants are associated with greater childhood weight gain and a faster tempo of growth: the 1946 British Birth Cohort Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012 May;95(5):1150-6
3. Elks CE, den Hoed M, Loos RJF, Zhao JH, Sharp SJ, Wareham NJ, Ong KK. Variability in the heritability of body mass index: a systematic review and meta-regression. Frontiers in Endocrinology. 2012 Feb; 3:29
4. Mumby HS, Elks CE, Li S, Sharp SJ, Khaw KT, Luben RN, Wareham NJ, Loos RJF, Ong KK. Mendelian Randomisation study of childhood BMI and early menarche. Journal of Obesity. 2011; 2011:180729
5. Ong KK, Elks CE, Wills AK, Wong A, Wareham NJ, Loos RJF, Kuh D, Hardy R. Associations between the pubertal timing-related variant in LIN28B and BMI vary across the life-course. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2011 Jan;96(1):E125-9
6. Elks CE*, Perry JRB*, Sulem P* et al. (ReproGen Consortium) Thirty new loci for age at menarche identified by a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies. Nature Genetics. 2010 Dec;42(12):1077-85
7. Elks CE, Loos RJF, Sharp SJ, Langenberg C, Ring SM, Timpson NJ, Ness AR, Davey Smith G, Dunger DB, Wareham NJ, Ong KK. Genetic markers of adult obesity risk are associated with greater early infancy weight gain and growth. PLoS Medicine. 2010 May 25;7(5):e1000284
8. Hardy R, Wills AK, Wong A, Elks CE, Wareham NJ, Loos RJ, Kuh D, Ong KK. Life course variations in the associations between FTO and MC4R gene variants and body size. Human Molecular Genetics. 2010 Feb 1;19(3):545-52
9. Ong KK, Elks CE, Li S et al. Genetic variation in LIN28B is associated with the timing of puberty. Nature Genetics. 2009 Jun;41(6):729-33

Commentaries and reviews

1. Elks CE, Scott RA. The long and short of telomere length and diabetes. Diabetes. 2014 Jan;63(1):65-7.
2. Lakshman R, Elks CE, Ong KK. Childhood Obesity. Circulation. 2012 Oct 2;126(14):1770-9.
3. Elks CE, Ong KK. Whole genome association studies for age at menarche. Briefings in Functional Genomics. 2011 Mar;10(2):91-7