Chris Haley Research Group

Complex Trait Genetics: Dissecting the genetic architecture of health and disease traits

Section: Biomedical Genomics

Research in a Nutshell

Our research group aims to understand the control of complex trait variation in humans and other species. But what does this mean exactly? Well if we look within populations of humans or other species we see that individuals differ from one another in almost all characteristics or traits. For example height and weight, personality traits and even susceptibility to colds and flu or arthritis all differ between people. For such traits variation is controlled by a number of different genes and environmental events or lifestyle choices as well as interactions between these various factors. Thus there is no simple cause of variation between individuals and such traits are termed complex. Our research uses computational and statistical analysis of data where traits have been measured on large samples of humans or other species and data on genetic, environmental and other potentially causative factors have also been measured. We use these analyses to estimate the extent of genetic and environmental influences on variation. Ultimately we aim to identify the most important environmental influences and genes with the biggest impact. This information can ultimately be used build models that can help identify individuals susceptible to disease or contribute to the design of treatments and drugs that treat disease.

Research Programme 1: Complex Trait Genetics: Dissecting the genetic architecture of health and disease traits

Quantitative Trait Loci Research

People
Professor Chris Haley	Group Leader
Carmen Amador	Research Scientist
Michael Barber	Research Student
Andrew Bretherick	ECAT Fellow
Melisa Chuong	Research Student
Eilidh Fummey	Research Student
Bailey Harrington	Research Student
Lucija Klaric	UKRI Rutherford Fund Fellow
Panagiotis Kokkinias	Research Student
Arianna Landini	Research Student
Pau Navarro	Research Scientist
Linda Repetto	Research Student

Contact

Chris.Haley@ed.ac.uk

Collaborations

Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh: Dr. Kenny Baillie, Dr. Caroline Hayward, Professor Chris Ponting, Professor David Porteous, Professor Colin Semple, Dr. Albert Tenesa, Dr Pippa Thomson, Dr. Veronique Vitart
University of Edinburgh: Professor Harry Campbell, Professor Ian Deary, Professor Ross Houston, Dr. Sara Knott, Professor Andrew McIntosh, Dr. Ricardo Pong-Wong, Professor Igor Rudan, Professor Jim Wilson
Pharmatics Ltd.: Dr. Felix Agakov