Hosted by the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Programme
Abstract: Norway is known for the fjords, amazing nature, natural resources and one great striker. Maybe less known is the wealth of biobanks and health-registries. In this talk, I will first describe a few findings from our genetics work in the Norwegian MODY and childhood diabetes registries, before I discuss how we utilize GWAS-approaches in up to 70 000 children and their parents in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child cohort (MoBa) to study how genetics shape our growth early in life and the relationship with BMI, diabetes and health later in life.
Biography: Stefan Johansson is a professor at the Center for Diabetes Research, University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital in Norway.
Stefan applies large scale genetics methods in patients and healthy individuals to understand how genetic variation influences normal development and how disease develops. He has done pioneering work to establish and consolidate genetic analysis expertise at three internationally recognized KG Jebsen Centres in Bergen; KGJ Neuropsychiatric research, KGJ Diabetes research and KGJ Autoimmune disorders, and at the Dept of Medical Genetics, Haukeland Univ hospital. His work has led to the identification and publication of novel Mendelian (single gene) disease genes in diabetes and brain related disorders, and the early implementation of new genomic technologies to clinical diagnostics at the Western Health Region of Norway. He has also contributed to and led large scale genetic analyses across a wide range of disorders and traits that have shed light on how our genes shape our susceptibility to diabetes, Addisons´s disease, obesity and psychiatric disease. During this work, Stefan and his team have had a leading role in establishing large genetic data sets for research in large Norwegian biobanks. This includes the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child study (MoBa) a longitudinal birth cohort study following more than 100 000 children and their parents from pregnancy into adulthood.
Stefan´s research in MoBa aims at increasing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying our growth during the first years of life, childhood and adolescence and how it relates to later health and disease. Notably his research has identified of a unique set of common genetic variants with strong impact on weight-gain in infancy and early childhood and shown that the genetic control of weight development changes drastically from infancy to childhood, and into adult life.
All welcome