Genetic epidemiology is a rapidly growing field in public health, encompassing diverse disciplines including population genetics, epidemiology, medicine, public health, molecular biology, statistical modeling, computational biology, and bioinformatics.
The goal of genetic epidemiology research is to identify novel biomarkers and understand the role of genetics, environmental factors, and gene-environment interactions in determining human health and diseases. Such knowledge can be translated into precision strategies to combat disease including early diagnosis, prevention, and intervention tailored to an individual’s personal profile. Thus, genetic epidemiology is at the heart of precision health. High-throughput genomic sequencing and other omics technologies are routinely used in genetic epidemiology research to identify genetic variants that cause disease or influence drug responses. The omics datasets generated are often very large (big data) and extremely complex. Therefore, sophisticated computational and statistical methods are required to analyze and interpret the data so that we can understand disease biology and identify drug targets in each individual’s genome.
The overall goal of the GeneBio Center is to discover and understand genetic drivers that cause complex human diseases and translate such knowledge to precision public health and precision medicine.
The GeneBio Center aims to:
- Conduct innovative scientific research to understand and uncover the molecular mechanisms and identify novel biomarkers for human complex diseases, especially aging and age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease and its related disorders.
- Develop novel statistical methods and bioinformatics tools for gene discovery, disease risk assessment and prediction, genomic data interpretation, and drug targets identification.
- Translate research findings into clinical and public health practice for early screening, accurate diagnosis, drug development, and targeted prevention and treatment.