Understanding genetic modifiers of obesity and metabolic disease

Project Code

MRCPHS25Ex Hawkes

Research Theme

Population Health Sciences

Project Summary Download

Summary

A person’s health is influenced by their socioeconomic status, smoking and other behavioural and environmental factors, as well as their genetic make-up. Some genetic variants directly affect protein sequence, while others act as switches that turn protein production on and off, depending on cell and life stage. But both, alone and combined, can affect a person’s health. In this project, you will use recently released data on 3,000 proteins from 50,000 participants with their full genetic sequence to investigate how environmental and genetic effects combine to affect an individual’s metabolic disease risk profile, in particular diabetes and obesity. 

Lead Supervisor

Dr Gareth Hawkes

Lead Supervisor Email

g.hawkes2@exeter.ac.uk

University Affiliation

Exeter