Jessica Rees

Supervisor: Dr Angela Wood & Dr Adam Butterworth

Title: Genetic variants of plasma fatty acids and risk of cardiovascular disease in EPIC-CVD.

Abstract: Current public health guidelines on consumption of fatty acids are based on observational epidemiological studies where fatty acid consumption is assessed through self-reported methods. 

To obtain robust results on the role of fatty acids on diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) biomarkers must be used.  I will therefore explore associations between 37 plasma fatty acids and incident CVD in EPIC-CVD, a nested case-cohort study of ~22,000 CVD cases and 17,000 controls drawn from 520,000 participants across Europe.  EPIC-CVD has prospectively collected detailed information on self-reported and measured dietary intake, anthropometry, plasma biomarkers of intermediate CVD risk factors and >200,000 genetic variants. 

The PhD will use Mendelian randomisation techniques to make conclusions as to whether certain plasma fatty acids are causally associated with CVD which will yield new insights into pathways leading to CVD and may identify undiscovered genetic loci associated with fatty acid concentrations.