For most of the health-related causes of morbidity and mortality, environmental risks and genetic vulnerability or proclivity are tightly intertwined, defying simplistic efforts to focus on one or the other. The application of epidemiological and machine learning techniques to nationally-scaled databases presents rich opportunities to understand how genetics and environmental factors influence our health.
Faculty
News
- Your risk of dementia: Do lifestyle and genetics matter? (Harvard Health Blog, September 13, 2019)
- Zip Code or Genetic Code? (January 14, 2019)
In the largest study of U.S. twins, researchers use insurance records to tease out effects of genes, environment in hundreds of diseases
Publications
- Repurposing large health insurance claims data to estimate genetic and environmental contributions in 560 phenotypes (Nature Genetics, 2019)
- Systematic identification of interaction effects between genome- and environment-wide associations in type 2 diabetes mellitus (Human Genetics, 2013)
- Systematic evaluation of environmental and behavioural factors associated with all-cause mortality in the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (International Journal of Epidemiology, 2013)
- An Environment-Wide Association Study (EWAS) on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (PLoS One, 2010)