Genetics of stroke: Determining the underlying pathological reasons for stroke and comparing and contrasting those findings between Caucasian and South Asians.

Stroke is the commonest cause of disability, second largest cause of dementia and the third biggest cause of death in the UK.
However, by 2050 the World Health Organisation has estimated that 80% of the worlds’ burden of stroke will lie between India and China. The UK has the largest South Asian population of any country outside of India, and that population proportionately uses more healthcare resources compared to the UK Caucasian population as well as presenting later with disease and with a greater severity of disease burden. The causes for this are therefore of great interest to the NHS and more generally to the global healthcare community.
In order to characterise the reasons for cardiovascular disease in the South Asian population we have created, to the best of our knowledge, the largest (and ongoing) bio-repository for stroke with stroke patients being recruited from the UK, India, Middle East and Sri Lanka.
This PhD program will seek to use epidemiological and genetic analysis to determine the underlying pathological reasons for stroke and compare and contrast those findings between Caucasian and South Asians.