All life on Earth has evolved innate timing mechanisms that optimize survival by facilitating adaptation to the fundamental environmental periodicities, for example the 24-hour (circadian) and 12-month (annual) cycles. Many studies over the last two decades have linked circadian misalignment with poor metabolic and mental health outcomes. Relationships between metabolic and neuropsychiatric disorders have been recognised for centuries, but the direction of causality remains poorly understood. This project will address this gap by investigating how markers of metabolic function in UK Biobank interact with neuropsychiatric disorders and mental health and the temporal regulation of these associations, including circadian, reproductive and seasonal rhythms. This research will leverage the genetic, biochemical, proteomic and metabolomic variables available in UK Biobank to investigate how the risk of metabolic and neuropsychiatric disease interact over time.
The research questions that this project will address will include:
* Do human metabolic and mental health parameters show rhythmic variation over frequencies spanning hours to years?
* Do human metabolic and mental health parameters show variation with reproductive stage and cycle?
* Are rhythmic patterns in human metabolism and behaviour associated with physical and mental health and wellbeing?
* Is disrupted rhythmicity associated with chronic metabolic or neuropsychiatric disease such as obesity, heart disease and depression?
* How are markers of metabolic health (genetic and phenotypic) related to neuropsychiatric or mental health outcomes?
* Does metabolic dysfunction predispose individuals to neuropsychiatric disorders and does a diagnosis of a neuropsychiatric disorder accelerate the progression of age-related metabolic dysfunction?
* Do shared biological pathways underlie both metabolic and neuropsychiatric disorders?