The Statistical and Genomic Epidemiology Laboratory (SGEL) studies the role of genetics in the development and mechanism of human traits, with particular emphasis on migraine, and the specific goal of identifying genetic risk factors and detecting common genetic links with other disorders, in particular depression, endometriosis and epilepsy.
The identification of causal genetic factors and how they interact with environmental exposures will provide a deeper understanding of the aetiology of migraine and its comorbid disorders, improve our ability to prevent and treat attacks, facilitate the discovery of novel pathways, and identify new targets for drug therapy.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have proven extremely successful as an approach to identify genomic loci and their constituent genetic variants which are statistically associated with risk for human complex diseases; however, the biological mechanisms through which they act are still largely unknown.
Therefore, a major component of my research program involves the development and application of statistical methods and multi-omic resources to identify the causal variants; target genes, tissue- and cell- types; and disease mechanisms of GWAS loci to translate GWAS discoveries into biological insight and clinical interventions.
As part of this research, SGEL also develops novel statistical and bioinformatics programs used by researchers worldwide.
For more details on our migraine, epilepsy, and integrating multi-omic data research, please follow the links in the sidebar.