Sponsors

Research Units

Ageing Research Group
The Behavioural Unit (BU)
Cardiovascular Genetics
The Genetics of Osteoarthritis Unit (OA Unit)
The Pharmacogenomics & Nutrition Unit
The Statistics Unit
The Spine Unit (SU)
The Vision Research Unit

Ageing Research Group (ARG)

Tim Spector

Head of the Unit: Prof Tim Spector MD, MSc, FRCP, Director of the DTR

Tim Spector is Professor of genetic epidemiology and director of the Department of Twin Research. He trained in Rheumatology and Epidemiology and is author of 400 research papers. His main interests are gene discovery in the common complex traits and diseases via genetic epidemiology, and the study of age related diseases such as CVD, metabolic traits, locomotor problems such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, cognitive function and eye disorders.

About the Unit: The aims of the ARG are to

  1. Understand mechanisms of aging
  2. Find novel biomarkers of aging
  3. Find genes for aging and age-related diseases
To do this we use a number of unique resources within the DTR including:- With these resources we are uniquely placed to play a major role in novel aging discoveries in the next decade.

The Behavioural Unit (BU)

Lynn Cherkas

Head of the Unit: Lynn F Cherkas BSc, DPhil, Genetic Analyst

Dr Lynn Cherkas is a Genetic Analyst at the Department of Twin Research and is responsible for designing the annual questionnaire sent to all the twins on the database. Her main interest is research on the influence of genetic and environmental factors on a wide range of behaviors and common complex diseases using twins.

About the Unit: The aim of this unit is to further the understanding of genetic and environmental influences on behavioural traits as well as the role of lifestyle factors in disease and ageing. The areas include:-

  1. lifestyle variables (alcohol consumption, smoking, exercise, SES and diet)
  2. personality and TEI
  3. cognition and memory
  4. religious and political attitudes
  5. sexuality and gender orientation
  6. mental health (depression, eating disorders, anxiety and stress disorders, OCD)
  7. learning disabilities (dyslexia, ADD)
Whilst some of the areas listed are the focus of interest for researchers within the DTR, others are studied with collaborators, both in the UK and worldwide. Initially, analyses concentrated on the heritability of these traits. With recent advances in genome-wide scans, the main aim now is to identify novel genetic variants associated with these traits.

Cardiovascular Genetics

Nicole Soranzo

Head of the Unit: Nicole Soranzo PhD, Honorary Lecturer

Dr Nicole Soranzo is a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton and Honorary Lecturer at the Department of Twin Research.

About the Unit: Coronary artery disease (CAD), and its most important complication myocardial infarction (MI), are the leading causes of premature deaths in the world. Our aims are to:

  1. Discover novel genetic loci for cardiovascular-related intermediate traits in healthy individuals
  2. Understand the contribution of intermediate traits and risk factors to cardiovascular aging
  3. Assess the clinical relevance of such loci in common and rare forms of CAD and MI
To do this we use a number of unique resources within the DTR including

The Genetics of Osteoarthritis Unit (OA Unit)

Ana Valdes

Head of the Unit: Ana M Valdes PhD, Senior Lecturer

Dr Ana Valdes heads the Genetics of Osteoarthritis Unit in the DTR. As part of her work on the genetics of OA she also collaborates with the Spine group lead by Dr Frances Williams on various projects.

About the Unit: The goal of the OA Unit is to investigate the role of genetic factors in susceptibility to large joint (hip or knee) osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a painful and disabling disease and is the most prevalent form of arthritis in the elderly. The OA Unit leads a work-package and is in charge of scientific co-ordination for the EU FP7 TREAT-OA consortium, whose goal is to identify the molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of OA.

The Pharmacogenomics & Nutrition Unit

Kourosh Ahmadi

Head of the Unit: Kourosh R Ahmadi PhD, Senior Lecturer

Kourosh Ahmadi is a senior lecturer in genetic epidemiology at King’s College London. His expertise includes the development and application of population genetics tools to gaining a deeper understanding of how individuals respond to medicines or natural herbal remedies including dietary supplements.

Developing an interface between genetics, social environments, and health will be an essential prerequisite for the envisaged advances in biology.

About the Unit: Pharmacogenomics (PGx) or Nutriogenomics (NGx) deal with how variations in the human genome affect response to common used medications or dietary factors. The principle aim of PGx or NGx is to develop rational means to optimise drug therapy or nutritional supplementation, with respect to the patients' genotype, to ensure maximum efficacy with minimal adverse effects.

The Pharmacogenomics & Nutrition Research Unit undertakes a wide variety of research including:
  1. The study of genetic and environmental factors that influence drug response or response to nutritional supplementation using the classical twin model
  2. Drug-drug interactions and the effects of age and disease states on drug and metabolite disposition
  3. Epidemiology and genomic epidemiology of common adverse drug reactions (ADRs)
  4. Candidate gene/pathway as well as genomewide association studies of baseline vitamin and mineral levels as well as key liver enzymes important in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination
  5. The application of System biology tools – genomics, Transcriptomics, proteomics and metabonomics – to study induction & inhibition in healthy human volunteers.

The Statistics Unit

Head of the Unit: Bernet Kato BSc, MSc, PhD, Genetic Statistician

Bernet leads the Statistics unit in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology (DTR) and trained in Mathematics and Biostatistics. Bernet’s doctoral thesis was entitled “Inequality Constrained Hierarchical Models”. His research interests are in statistical genomics and longitudinal and multilevel data analysis using Multilevel/Hierarchical models.

About the Unit: The aim of the unit is to further the understanding of how modern statistical modelling tools can best be used in the areas of genetic and genomic epidemiology. The members of the unit carry out statistical and applied research in genetic and genomic epidemiology.

The unit also provides a general statistical consulting service to other members of the DTR and is centrally involved in many of the projects at the DTR.

The Spine Unit (SU)

Frances Williams

Head of the Unit: Frances MK Williams PhD, FRCP(Edin), Senior Lecturer

Frances leads the Spine Unit in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology and is an Intermediate Wellcome Trust Fellow. The main areas of interest are osteoarthritis and, in particular, degenerative disease of the spine and back pain. The major focus of work is the longitudinal study of twins using MRI scans of the spine which we are in the process of repeating, 10 years after twins’ original scan. This work showed the high heritability of degenerative disease and we will use the scans, back pain and nutritional data to describe the natural history of DDD over 10 years. Using genome-wide association scans, we aim to identify novel genetic variants associated with the condition.

An Hon Consultant Rheumatologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Frances provides outpatient clinics in general rheumatology, osteoporosis and spine disease as well as a specialist clinic for the musculoskeletal problems of Musicians.

About the Unit: The aim of this unit is to further the understanding of degenerative conditions of the spine, including disc (DDD) and facet joint disease. We have formed the Spine Research Group within KCL and the Trust comprising SU researchers, Specialist Physiotherapists and Spinal Surgeons. A programme of combined research projects is being developed, using data collected both in twins and patients attending the Trust. Ultimately genetic variants associated with DDD in twins will be tested in patients attending with back pain. Our long term aim is to further the understanding of the relationship between DDD, back pain and nutrition, and to improve interventions aimed at ameliorating the condition.

The Vision Research Unit

Chris Hammond

Head of the Unit: Chris Hammond BM, BCh, MRCP, FRCOphth, MD, Genetic Analyst

Chris Hammond is the lead of the Vision Research Unit in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology. He is a consultant ophthalmologist, working at Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust (the West Kent Eye Centre), subspecialising in paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, and adult cataract surgery. He was appointed to an NIHR Senior Research Fellowship in 2008, which allows him to spend 60% of his time leading the research group.

About the Unit: The Vision Research Unit studies the genetic epidemiology of common eye diseases using twin studies, linkage, association and functional designs to investigate disease aetiology. Led by Chris Hammond and working with Dr Toby Andrew, current studies include the genetics of myopia, funded by Wellcome Trust, the EU Commission (MyEuropia Research Training Network - Dr Pirro Hysi, postdoctoral researcher, and Miss Margarida Lopes, PhD student) and the NIH in the USA. We currently have refractive error phenotypes on over 5000 twin subjects, with most having genome-wide association scans. The NIH collaboration, with Prof Terri Young at Duke University, USA, and Prof David Mackey in Australia, is also looking for susceptibility polymorphisms for endophenotypes of glaucoma (IOP, CCT, optic disc parameters) in a study which was initially funded by Guide Dogs for the Blind (with Dr Francis Carbonaro, PhD student). We also have ongoing studies in age-related cataract (Dr Hammond), retinal vascular phenotypes as marker of systemic vascular disease (PhD student Samantha Fahy), and recently completed a macular pigment study (Dr SH Melissa Liew).