Supervisors

John Perry, Ken Ong

Programme(s)

Early Life Aetiology and Mechanisms of Diabetes and Related Metabolic Disorders

Summary

Population studies have long observed phenotypic correlations and shared genetic determinants between ageing-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cancer, yet the biological basis of these relationships is often unclear. Based on recent human genetics work^1,2, we propose that variation in DNA damage response and genome stability (DDR/GS) processes is a ‘common soil’ mechanism that underpins susceptibility to many complex traits and diseases. This project will involve using state of the art genomics techniques and large-scale population datasets to test this hypothesis.

Selected References

1. Thompson et al, Genetic predisposition to mosaic Y chromosome loss in blood. Nature (2019)
2. Zhao et al, GIGYF1 loss of function is associated with clonal mosaicism and adverse metabolic health. Nature Communications (2021)