Preventative opportunities for coronary heart disease in multi-ancestry patients with non-cardiovascular conditions

Summary

Despite decades of research, coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In parallel, multimorbidity (i.e. the co-occurrence of two or more chronic conditions in the same person) has emerged as a growing public health concern.

Project aims

This project attempts to address both challenges by identifying opportunities for CHD prevention in patients with non-cardiovascular diseases (non-CVDs). While some non-CVDs have been causally associated with CHD (e.g. type-2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease), there remains uncertainty regarding most other non-CVDs. Uncertainty is even greater in minority ethnic groups, which contributes to exacerbating health inequalities.

This PhD project seeks to generate new knowledge through interrogating a range of population datasets (involving >60M individuals) and large-scale genomic datasets (>1.5M participants) linked to electronic health records. By identifying preventative opportunities for CHD in multi-ancestry patients with non-CVDs, this PhD project is expected to yield multiple impactful outcomes with implications for public health, clinical medicine and industry.

For example, project’s scale may reveal ancestry-specific associations between non-CVDs and CHD, ultimately contributing to the reduction of health inequalities. Additionally, distinguishing between observational and genetically-predicted associations could help clarify the effects of biological pathways versus environmental or iatrogenic factors, which may, in turn, influence public health policy and medication regulation. The student's contributions to prioritising and interpreting these analyses will be highly valued.

Through this project, the PhD student will develop advanced data science skills to conduct thorough Mendelian randomisation and observational analyses of high-dimensional data. They will have the opportunity to collaborate with national and international experts, including those from institutions such as Oxford, Edinburgh and Harvard.

Contact details

Dr Elias Allara - ea431@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Opportunities

This project is open to applicants who want to do a:

• PhD