Richard Doll Seminar - Embracing epigenetics in epidemiological studies: uses in prediction and understanding disease mechanisms

Abstract

Caroline Relton obtained a PhD in molecular genetics at Newcastle University in 1999 where she then held an academic position for 12 years, before moving to the University of Bristol in 2012. Caroline’s research focuses on understanding the role of both genetic and epigenetic variation in development and disease. The work of her group includes using population-based approaches to study epigenetic information as a biomarker of exposure and a predictor of disease. She has developed and applied causal analysis methods to understand the role of epigenetic processes as disease mechanisms and has led studies investigating the genetic architecture of DNA methylation variation. Her research spans multiple clinical areas from perinatal health to cancer. Caroline is also Director of the Bristol Population Health Science Research Institute.

This lecture will provide some background as to why the fusion of epigenetics and epidemiology may be a fruitful avenue of enquiry in biomedical research, what sorts of questions we can consider addressing, what some of the challenges are and describe some of the solutions that we have developed.