Approved Research

Roles of clinical, lifestyle, environmental, proteome, and genetic factors in prevention, risk prediction and precision treatment of chronic noncommunicable diseases.

Lay summary

As the leading cause of death worldwide and the major global health threat, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) represent an increasing burden on the global economy and pose a strain on economic development. Unhealthy diet, tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, air pollution, genetic susceptibility and their interaction all contribute to the dramatic increase in NCDs.

Substantial efforts have been put into the identification and modification of risk factors leading to NCDs. However, there is still a large study gap between risk factors and NCDs. For example, many of the interactions, temporal relationships, and casual relationships between risks factors and relevant NCDs outcomes remain unknown.

The genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach has greatly facilitated the identification of genetic loci and biological pathways, which can help us to identify new genetic risk loci and/or replicate previously identified risk loci for NCDs. The baseline and follow-up phenotype and genotype data of UK biobank will be used to perform causal inference within NCDs.

Furthermore, the large dataset on diversity exposures and health-related outcomes provides us with opportunities for discovering the interaction and temporal relationship between risk factors and related NCDs.

In addition, we plan to build statistical models to predict relevant NCDs and the risk scores of related diseases. If possible, we will combine the genetic risk loci with traditional predictors to construct an optimal prediction model.

Through this proposed research, we anticipate that the results will provide a deeper understanding of mechanism of NCDs. Our work will contribute to clinical practice in predictive, preventive and personalized medicine.