With the advancement of gene technologies and the assembly of large-scale population studies in the past decades, thousands of genetic regions in our genome have been found to regulate heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease and cancer risk. However, the underlying mechanisms at each of these regions to affect our disease risk are still unknown. Some molecules in our blood have been known to predict our future risk of heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease and cancer. For example, blood cholesterol levels are used to predict coronary heart disease risk; blood glucose levels are used to predict type 2 diabetes risk; blood creatinine levels are used to predict kidney disease risk; plasma male hormone (testosterone) levels are used to predict prostate cancer risk in men, etc. We propose that blood molecules might interact with our genes to determine individual disease risk. Now, the company of Nightingale Health Co. is measuring about 220 blood molecules for all 500,000 participants in the UK Biobank cohort. With all these blood biochemistry molecules levels, we are going to perform complex large-scale statistical analyses to explore what kinds of blood molecules and genes work together to affect individual risk of heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease and cancer. We expect our analyses will last about 3 years. The results of our study will not only help find new blood molecules to predict future risk of these disease, but also explain how some blood molecules and our genes work together to affect our disease risk, i.e., to regulate certain blood molecule levels to affect our disease risk. Both new blood molecules and novel biological understandings elucidated from these genetic regions will help with the control and prevention of heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease and cancer in the populations. Our research agrees with the aims of UK Biobank: “research intended to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness and the promotion of health throughout society”.
