Personnel
PI: Hao Mei, Ph.D.
PI: Michal Jazwinski, Ph.D.
PI: Fan Jiang, MD, Ph.D.,
Shanghai Children's Sleep Project.
Shanghai Jiao-Tong University Medical School.
Consultant: Eden R. Martin, Ph.D.,
Professor of Human Genetics, Director, Center for Genetic epidemiology and Statistical Genetics,
University of Miami.
Consultant: Bruce Weir, Ph.D.,
Chair and Professor of Biostatistics, Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences,
University of Washington
One of our researches is primarily focused on longitudinal genetic study of cardiovascular aging and diseases. Vascular aging (VA) is the progressive alteration of vascular structure over time, and the aging-associated vascular remodeling is mainly characterized by increased artery stiffness, which can be quantified by "biomarkers" including pulse wave velocity (PWV), augmentation index (AIx), pulse pressure (PP), carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), and blood flow velocity (BFV). The progress of these "biomarkers", known as vascular aging phenotypes, in early age strongly predicts the occurrence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death in the old age, which account for over 85% of the mortality of individuals older than 65 years in the USA.
The second area of our research is the development of powerful and computationally efficient statistical genetic methods, including rare variant test, pathway association test, and test of high-order gene-gene, gene-environment interaction, cumulative multiple variant and pleiotropic effects. 1) Rare variant test: Because of very low frequency of rare genetic variants in population, traditional single-marker and multivariate methods have exceptionally low power for testing effects of rare variants. Our research objective is to develop a computationally fast and powerful method that are applicable for any known or unknown phenotype distribution, mixed protective or risk rare variant effects and different sequencing strategies (random sequencing or extreme phenotype sequencing). 2) Pathway association test: A large number of genome-wide association studies have been completed up to date. The objective is to develop a computationally fast and powerful method that can test for pathway associations by post-GWAS analysis with adjustment for linkage disequilibrium among different genetic variants. 3) Test of high-order gene-gene, gene-environment interaction, cumulative multiple variant and pleiotropic effects. As a complement to GWAS, The objective is to develop powerful method for testing effects of multiple genetic variants over genome.
The third area of our research is the epidemiology study of Chinese children's development. Collaborating with Shanghai Jiao-Tong University Medical School, by studying Chinese children at early age and puberty, our research objective is to identify the specific life styles, environment and genetic factors that can influence children's development, primarily focused on sleeping problem and development of obesity. The long-term objective is to help devising strategies for promotion of healthy development and prevention of obesity at young age.
Genome-wide gene expression study of osteogenic& cells for osteoporosis
Genome-wide association study of periodontitis
Longitudinal genetic study of cardiovascular aging and diseases
Methodology development for rare-variant test, multiple-variant and pathway studyEpidemiology study of Chinese children's development
