Honours or PhD project. We are seeking a highly motivated student with a strong interest in statistics and quantitative studies.
Mental health disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, and substance use) are the leading cause of global disease burden in the young adult population. Twin and family studies show that both genetic and environmental factors play a large role in the aetiology of these disorders. The Translational Neurogenomics group aims to identify genetic risk factors for a range of mental health and substance use disorders, and investigate the interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors.
UK Biobank is a major national and international health resource with the aim of improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses. UK Biobank recruited 500,000 people aged between 40-69 years in 2006-2010 from across the country to take part in this project. They have undergone measures, provided blood, urine and saliva samples for future analysis, and detailed information about themselves and agreed to have their health followed. Over many years, this will build into a powerful resource to help scientists discover why some people develop particular diseases and others do not. Extensive information on mental health has been collected from a subset of 150,000 individuals.