Pau Navarro

Research Scientist

MRC Human Genetics Unit
MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine

Email: Pau.Navarro@ed.ac.uk

Complex Traits Genetics Group

Street: MRC Human Genetics Unit
MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine
The University of Edinburgh
Western General Hospital
Crewe Road
City: EDINBURGH
Post code: EH4 2XU

Biography

Background

Pau Navarro is an investigator scientist at the MRC Human Genetics Unit. She studied Agricultural Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València and undertook her PhD in Genetics at the Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh). Her research now focuses on human genetics, although she has maintained collaborations and has active projects that focus on animal populations.

Qualifications

BSc in Agricultural Engineering (Animal Science), Universitat Politècnica de València, 1999.

PhD in Quantitative Genetics, University of Edinburgh, 2004.

Teaching & PhD supervision

Undergraduate teaching

Undergraduate Teaching and Supervision

I am not currently involved in undergraduate teaching, but our group has hosted both undergraduate and high school students for short projects. If this is something that interests you, have a look at http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/nuffield-research-placements and get in touch!

Postgraduate teaching

MSc Teaching and Supervision

I teach within of the QGGA MSc and the IGMM Postgraduate programme. I also contribute to these programmes and the EPCC HPC MSc through the provision of projects and supervision of students. These often represent the student’s first contact with practical research, and a significant amount of supervision is required to ensure that these projects not only lead to the successful completion of the study programme but also set the foundation stone for a successful career in research, by inculcating good research practice.

PhD Supervision

I have been supervising PhD students, either in formal or informal capacities for more than a decade. Currently, I am supervisor to 7 PhD students.

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Panagiotis Kokkinias (submitted)

Bailey Harrington (submitted)

Linda Repetto

Arianna Landini

Eilidh Fummey

Michael Baber

Caelinn James

Silvia Shen

Jurgis Kuliešius

Past PhD students supervised

Richard Oppong

Charley Xia

Reka Nagy

Kate Schraut

Peter Joshi

Alida Kindt

Research

Research summary

My research focuses on the dissection of the complex trait variation of the type that underlies the most frequent and high impact diseases in the western world, such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, glaucoma and mental disorders. Some examples of that include the analyses of large family and population based data sets, phenotyped for health-related traits, spanning from schizophrenia and depression to diabetes-related phenotypes, hypertension and heart rate and glaucoma, and genotyped at varying numbers of genetic markers (ranging from sequence data of genes to genome-wide genotyping and sequencing).

My work has focused on applying and developing tools that allow us to better understand the genetic and environmental architecture underlying complex traits. This is important from a basic biology, clinical and animal breeding viewpoints. Identifying which genes and pathways (or other genomic features) are responsible for trait variation, be it normal or pathological, may unveil pharmacological targets, inform on interventions needed to prevent ill health (if we know an individual has a genetic high risk of suffering a disease, we can put in place measures that counteract this risk), and allow to design tailored breeding programmes. These have important implications both from a welfare and an economic point of view. Some advances have been done towards unveiling regions responsible for variation, and my research has contributed to this. We have also come to the realisation that more powerful analytical and computational tools are needed to further assist in this task and to apply the outcomes of the research to ‘real life’ (for example risk prediction tools in clinical practice). Again, my current research plays an important role in the advancement of the field.