Virtual
In Person
Department of Epidemiology Seminar Series
Speaker:
David Hunter, M.B.,B.S., Sc.D.
Richard Doll Professor of Epidemiology & Medicine
Director of Translational Epidemiology Unit
Oxford Population Health, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford
Abstract: In the 1990’s the “Common variant, Common diseases” hypothesis was proposed. The Human Genome Project was followed by the HapMap, and the development of genome chips that enabled the whole genome to be assessed in case-control studies or nested case-control studies permitted tests of the hypothesis. I will review subsequent developments and the clinical utility of measuring common genetic variation, and barriers to using this information in disease prevention. Overcoming these barriers through unprecedented levels of data sharing may be a key to Our Future Health.
Bio: David Hunter is the Richard Doll Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and Director of the Translational Epidemiology Unit at Oxford Population Health, the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK. He founded the Program in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics at Harvard and was co-chair of the steering committee of the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium at the National Cancer Institute. He was co-director of the NCI Cancer Genetic Susceptibility Markers project focused on genome-wide association studies, and Dean for Academic Affairs and Acting Dean at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He is the Chief Science Advisor to Our Future Health a major new national initiative in the UK that aims to return genomic information to consenting participants.
