Critical illness in intensive care units represents life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by conditions such as sepsis, respiratory failure, or trauma, and remains a major contributor to global morbidity and mortality. Although previous studies have identified genetic predisposition, clinical comorbidities, biomarker profiles, and environmental exposures as individual risk factors, an integrated analysis is still needed to disentangle their combined contributions and the underlying biological pathways in critically ill individuals.
This project aims to leverage the comprehensive UK Biobank resource-including clinical hospital records, genomic data (GWAS and WGS), and circulating blood-based multi-omics layers (proteomics and metabolomics)-to systematically quantify and compare the relative impact of genetic risk, pre-existing clinical conditions, circulating omics signatures, and environmental factors on the incidence and heterogeneity of critical illness requiring ICU-level care. Furthermore, we seek to identify integrated biomarker panels predictive of ICU admission severity, disease trajectories, and adverse outcomes.
By modeling these determinants in combination, we anticipate uncovering novel mechanistic insights and molecular biomarkers that can inform early-warning strategies, risk stratification, and targeted interventions in intensive care medicine.
