The number of patients suffering with chronic liver, kidney, inflammatory and metabolic diseases is growing at an alarming rate. Treatment options are limited, and there is a large unmet medical need for these diseases. Genetic associations to diseases provide a source of therapeutic targets that can be leveraged to develop novel therapeutics to treat these diseases. We propose to use the power of genetics together with the large data available at the UK Biobank, in order to determine the causal relationships between genetic variants and specific diseases or pathophysiological markers. We will increase our understanding of the cause of these diseases, the mechanisms involved in disease progression, and improve disease diagnosis and patient characterization. Together, our research will pave the way for the development of new drugs to treat chronic diseases, and improve healthcare for people suffering from these conditions.
