Since 2008 I have started working in a research project directed by Prof Cucca. These studies are of the case-control type and are based on the comparison of the genetic variations present between a group of individuals affected by a certain disease (cases) and those not affected (controls). In short, the most frequent variations between cases are sought. This type of study is done for diseases, that is caused by several factors, both genetic and environmental. This is why you will never hear of the "diabetes gene" or the "asthma gene", but of "one of the genetic factors that increase the risk of having diabetes", or asthma. The research also from the statistical-genetic point of view, will look for the set of genetic variants most frequent in cases, and therefore which could predispose to the disease.
The control projects I work on aim to find the risk factors for breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, and are all based on the study of Sardinian volunteers (to whom we owe thanks particular). In the menu you will find precise descriptions for each of them. These projects are ongoing (on multiple sclerosis there was also an important result published in 2010), and Fat a whole genome study of volunteers conducted not only looking at particular DNA points with microarray techniques, but also with sequences of the whole genome with innovative machinery.
For this type of research, there is the scientific support of CRS4, the Research Center for Higher Studies in Sardinia located in Pula, with its computing cluster at our disposal, super-efficient systems engineers, genotyping platforms and two sequencers Solexa! (Click on the Next-Gen Sequencing page to find out more)
I have not worked on thes projects since 2017. |
Last Updated on Thursday, 11 March 2021 13:45 |