Health data analysis to identify the role of gene and environment in risk of cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular diseases including hypertension, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and stroke are the leading causes of mortality worldwide and are expected to keep rising. Modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors are recognised for cardiovascular diseases. Examples of modifiable risk factors include diet, sedentary lifestyle, and smoking. Sex, age, and genetic factors are among non-modifiable risk factors. Genetic factors can help us classify individuals in the population into high risk and low-risk groups. We can then target appropriate preventive strategies to these different groups accordingly and decrease the burden of cardiovascular diseases.

This is an umbrella project for a series of PhD projects aiming to investigate the role of various genetic and environmental factors (e.g alcohol consumption, smoking, or environment affecting mental health) in cardiovascular diseases. We will use data from the UK Biobank on 500,000 individuals. The projects involve working with human data and learning various skills in epidemiology and statistical analysis. Individuals with MSc degree in fields related to data analysis such as Genomics, Epidemiology, Population Genetics, Statistics, and Bioinformatics or related disciplines and those who are experienced working with big data are encouraged to apply. Depending on the topic you choose, you will learn techniques such as mendelian randomisation, polygenic models, risk prediction and machine learning. These projects will be supervised by Dr Raha Pazoki.

Please contact Dr Raha Pazoki for an informal discussion and instruction on how to move forward.