Further funding for gene screens
22 April 2009
Professor David Collier and colleagues from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London are leading the study, and will analyse over 4000 samples collected by the Genetic Consortium for Anorexia Nervosa.
Wilms' tumour is a cancer of the kidney that affects children. Professor Nazneen Rahman from the Institute of Cancer Research and Professor Peter Donnelly from the University of Oxford have been funded to screen 2000 cases of the tumour, which may help the development of personalised treatments.
Dr Linda Morgan from the University of Nottingham and colleagues will test whether the risk of pre-eclampsia is affected by genetic variants in the maternal genome. Screening the genomes of 2225 affected women in the UK, they hope to shed light on the biological pathways behind the pregnancy disorder, which kills some 50 000 women worldwide every year.
Also at the University of Nottingham, Dr James Bentham and colleagues will investigate the genetic causes of congenital heart disease. This research may also identify environmental risk factors, which could be used to help to prevent the disease.
Image: Illustration of anorexia and self-image. Credit: Adrian Cousins