Interplay between genetic and environmental factors and 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. Identification of risk factors are important in prevention of cardiovascular disease. For instance, genetic factors can help us classify individuals in population into high risk and low risk groups. We can then target appropriate preventive strategies to these different groups accordingly and decrease burden of cardiovascular diseases. This PhD project aims to investigate interactivity of genetic and environmental factors in cardiovascular diseases. Combination of environmental factors such as dietary intake, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption with genetic factors will be analysed in relation to cardiovascular disease occurrence. We will use data from the UK Biobank on 500,000 individuals. This project involves 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. You will learn techniques such as analysis of interactions using regression models, mendelian randomisation, polygenic models, risk prediction and machine learning. This PhD project will be supervised by Dr Raha Pazoki.