The explosion in genetic research might leave some of us feeling that the important role of the environment is being ignored. EDIT Lab PhD students Daniel and Chris explain why recognising genetic differences is crucial if we want to understand the true role of the environment, and work out which…
Genetics research has played a vital role in improving our understanding of biology, disease, treatments and even the environment. EDIT lab PhD students Chris and Daniel provide a couple of examples to illustrate why genetics research is important.
For the letter T in our A-Z series, Chris discusses the emerging field of Therapygenetics.
This blog explains our latest publication in which we analysed Twins Early Development Study data on emotional problems across childhood and adolescence. Accurate assessment is difficult but essential if we are to understand the influences on emotional problems. We took advantage of longitudinal data (i.e. taken across time) to define…
Nearly all human traits, such as height, weight, and intelligence, and common disorders like major depressive and anxiety disorders are polygenic. This means that variation in more than one gene (usually many genes) contributes to total genetic predisposition for a specific trait or disorder. Chris outlines how Polygenic Risk Scores…
Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, contributing considerably to early mortality. Despite significant efforts, the genetics underlying depression has been difficult to identify and there has been limited progress in developing new treatments. Last month the largest genome-wide association study of depression was published in Nature Genetics (1)….
Heritability is the proportion of variation in a given population that is due to genetic differences. If a trait is highly heritable, it is more likely to be shared between individuals of close genetic relatedness, regardless of whether they share the same environment. This concept can be difficult to wrap…
Next in the ‘A-Z’ series is B, for ‘Biobank’ or ‘BioResource’. Biobanks and bioresources are frequently used to support an abundance of research looking into all kinds of different disorders and phenotypes. This blog outlines exactly what a biobank and a bioresource are, and how they are used to support…
Decades of twin studies have shown that childhood behaviour problems including anxiety, depression, conduct and hyperactivity are substantially heritable. However, our recent research found that individual differences in behaviour problems are not significantly influenced by the common DNA differences that we directly measure. This finding held across diverse domains of…
Last time out, I discussed options for replicating findings from a genome-wide association study when no appropriate cohort exists for replication. Perhaps the most effective solution was time – wait for more samples, get more power and prove those pesky doubters wrong. As all good sci-fi fans know (and as…
Recent Comments