Approved research

Nutrition, diet and health: examining causal associations and gene-environment interactions

Lay summary

Using approaches from observational and genetic epidemiology, we propose to examine causal effects and gene-environment interactions affecting the way diet, obesity, or other nutritional factors affect health. The project has a specific focus on obesity and vitamin D, but it will also look at coffee, alcohol, and other components affecting nutritional intakes. Diet and nutritional status have a fundamental influence on health, and we will look at influences on aging, endocrinological, cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal health. This study will establish new disease prevention strategies, and inform on the way we can overcome disease inducing genetic vulnerabilities by lifestyle choices. This study will aim to establish new disease prevention strategies, and inform on the way we can overcome disease inducing genetic vulnerabilities by lifestyle choices. This study will use observational and genetic epidemiological approaches using existing information. We will conduct Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses using genetic proxy markers for variations in nutritional exposures to evaluate the causal effects on the outcome. Analyses will be bi-directional where direction of association is not known, and network MR analyses will be conducted to establish causal pathways. Gene-environment interaction analyses will be conducted to establish effect modification by dietary and nutritional indicators in the way genes affect health. Full cohort.

Scope extension:

Approved scope:

Using approaches from observational and genetic epidemiology, we propose to examine causal effects and gene-environment interactions affecting the way diet, obesity, or other nutritional factors affect health.  The project has a specific focus on obesity and vitamin D, but it will also look at coffee, alcohol, and other components affecting nutritional intakes. Diet and nutritional status have a fundamental influence on health, and we will look at influences on cancer, aging, endocrinological, cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal health. This study will establish new disease prevention strategies, and inform on the way we can overcome disease inducing genetic vulnerabilities by lifestyle choices.

Our application already covers bi-directional MR analyses, including the exploration of mediating pathways, and we wish to explicitly expand the scope of our application to cover MR and GxE analyses in the context of disease related exposures, and possible drug target related approaches which could be used to mitigate related effects. In addition to nutritional factors, we wish to include broader information on other lifestyle factors such as physical activity. We aim to use clustering approaches to define patterns for individual risk factor profiles, in order to better cover human exposome.  We wish to update the methods description to include phenome-wide analyses.

We would like to extend the scope of the project to include the use of machine learning approaches (supervised and unsupervised) in addition to genetic and epidemiological methods to answer the research questions.

As outcomes for our analyses we would like to explicitly include frailty, neurocognitive diseases and phenotypes (including brain imaging information and cognitive tests) and mortality.