(MRC DTP) Data integration for precision medicine

Precision medicine is the customisation and tailoring of medical interventions to the individual and has the potential to have an enormous impact on healthcare. Precision medicine offers a path to helping people stay healthy for longer and recover from illness faster. This potential can only be fully realised if we are able to accurately predict the outcome of patients in different clinical scenarios. However the success of this approach relies upon the selection of key features that can classify individuals into risk categories. Due to the rapid advance of omics technologies such as genomic, transcriptomics and proteomics, their use in precision medicine research has become common where the aim is to construct prediction models across a diverse range of data types. A major challenge that hinders the progress of precision medicine is the integration and interpretation of multiple orthogonal datasets to maximise predictive performance.

This project will use existing data from the MAximising Therapeutic Utility for Rheumatoid Arthritis (MATURA) project to predict therapeutic treatment response. MATURA is an observational study collecting genetic and clinical data on 5,300 patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with either methotrexate, anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) or rituximab. The aim of this project will be to apply machine learning and traditional statistical methods to develop effective predictive modelling strategies through the integration of all data available through the MATURA project with a view that these approaches will be generalisable to other high-dimensional biological datasets. Available data includes phenotype data (demographics and clinical records), biomarker data (genetics, gene expression, metabolomics and epigenetics) and cellular immunophenotyping.

The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, geneticists, statisticians and computer scientists based at the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Genetic and Genomics and collaborate with experts throughout the University of Manchester.

http://www.cfgg.manchester.ac.uk/
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/j.bowes.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/anne.barton.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/nophar.geifman.html
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/farideh.jalali.html

Entry Requirements
Applications are invited from UK/EU nationals only. Applicants must have obtained, or be about to obtain, at least an upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject.