MRC INTEGRATIVE EPIDEMIOLOGY UNIT (IEU)

 SPECIAL SEMINAR

 Monday, 14th November, 2016

16.00 – 17.00 - Room OS6 – Oakfield House

 Dr Anna Ramond
NIHR Blood Transfusion Research Unit in Donor Health and Genomics
University of Cambridge

 “Investigation into the causal effects of iron metabolism on chronic disease outcomes”

Abstract

Iron metabolism has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various common chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, various forms of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. While the observational evidence is indicative of an effect of iron metabolism in the pathology of several of these diseases, whether these associations are causal remains unclear.

Mendelian randomization is a method of instrumental variable analysis which uses genetic variants as a proxy for an environmentally modifiable exposure and can be used to derive causal estimates of a risk factor-outcome association. In this seminar, I will present findings of my research investigating the potential causal effects of iron biomarkers on CHD and other common chronic diseases using a Mendelian Randomization approach.

Biography

After completing a doctorate in Pharmacy at Universite Paris Descartes and a Masters in Epidemiology at Imperial College, I moved to the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit in 2012 and joined the Blood Donor Health research group (now the NIHR Blood Transfusion Research Unit in Donor Health and Genomics) where my main research focus has been investigating the health effects of blood donation in large cohorts of blood donors. As an extension of my work on blood donor health, one of my areas of focus has been investigating the effects of iron metabolism on health, which became the focus of my PhD in 2014, which is the investigation of the causal effects of iron metabolism on chronic diseases.

  

ALL WELCOME