Defining shared and distinct genetic/genomic mechanisms that underlie the impact of environmental factors on lung function

人类的生理特征受到一系列遗传、表观遗传和环境因素的影响。开发基于遗传、信息学和生物系统的工作流程，使我们能够结合使用大规模的人类表型、遗传和基因组数据，将增加我们对肺功能等特征的理解。该项目将涉及分析现有的丰富表型和遗传数据，这些数据来自一个新的本地队列，即Except(电子健康、环境和DNA扩展队列)研究(6500人)，以研究环境和遗传对肺功能的影响。这些可用的数据包括初级保健电子病历，其中包含有关就诊、诊断、处方和病理结果的信息。这些数据将与对2500多万个遗传变异的测量相结合，并用于分析肺功能参数和环境压力之间的关系。该项目的重点将是病原体感染对肺部健康的影响，从而深入了解慢性阻塞性肺疾病(COPD)等呼吸系统疾病恶化的机制和潜在的治疗干预措施。学生将加入一个领导备受瞩目的呼吸基因组学研究的小组，并将有机会在大学内和GSK合作获得优秀的培训设施和研究机会。在整个学习过程中，葛兰素史克将花费最少12周的时间安排学生学习，由马丁·托宾教授(莱斯特大学健康科学系)和David Michalovich博士(GSK)指导，并与莱斯特内外的同事合作，从而确保在统计学、医学和遗传学方面有一个丰富的研究环境。遗传流行病学是一个发展中的领域，拥有极好的博士后就业机会。

Human physiological traits are influenced by a range of genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors. The development of genetic, informatics and biological systems based workflows that allow us to use a combination of large scale human phenotypic, genetic and genomic data will increase our understanding of traits such as lung function.This project will involve analysis of the rich phenotypic and genetic data now available from a new local cohort, the EXCEED (EXtended Cohort for E-health, Environment and DNA) study (6500 individuals), to study environmental and genetic effects on lung function. These available data include primary care electronic medical records with information on attendance, diagnoses, prescriptions and pathology results. These data will be integrated with measurements for more than 25 million genetic variants and used to analyse the relationships between lung function parameters and environmental stresses. A key focus of the project will be the effect of pathogen infection on lung health leading to insight into the mechanisms underlying exacerbations, and potential therapeutic interventions, in respiratory diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).The student will join a group leading high-profile respiratory genomics research and will have access to excellent training facilities and research opportunities within the Universityand in partnership with GSK. A minimum of 12 weeks will be spent on placement at GSK over the course of the studentship.The studentship will be under the supervision of Professor Martin Tobin (Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester) and Dr David Michalovich (GSK) and will involve collaboration with colleagues in and outside Leicester, thus ensuring a rich research environment at the interface of statistics, medicine and genetics. Genetic epidemiology is a growing field with excellent postdoctoral employment opportunities.