Expertise & background

I am a genetic epidemiologist with a background in psychology and statistics. I am interested in using a combination of observational and genetic epidemiology to understand the aetiology of complex traits/diseases. 

Previous research

My doctoral research focused on trying to disentangle the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and sleep duration, using large population-based studies. To do this, I analysed a combination of epidemiological and genomic data.

Current work

I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow in Prof. Nish Chaturvedi's MRC LHA Unit and I work in collaboration with Prof. Aroon Hingorani's group (Translational Genomics: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cardiovascular/research/department-population-science-experimental-medicine/group-centre-translational-genomics/translational-genomics-study-group). 

I am also a Visiting Research Fellow at LSHTM, as I work closely with Prof. Liam Smeeth and Prof. Krishnan Bhaskaran in the Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology. I currently use genomic and epidemiological data from the UK Biobank (http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk) and SABRE (Southall and Brent REvisited: https://www.sabrestudy.org/?cat=11) studies to understand the biology underlying the association between glycemic traits and several outcomes, both physical and in the brain. I also have an interest in ethnic differences underlying these complex relationships and biological processes.

Student supervision

I currently supervise student dissertations across the following courses: MSc Data Science, MSc Health and Society: Social Epidemiology and BSc Population Health, MSc Cardiovascular Science and BSc Natural Sciences. I also supervise MRC PhD Year 1 rotation projects and am PhD supervisor for an MRC student and a student at the Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay.