Research interests
Above: A view of the University of Leicester campus from Victoria Park
We run a research group in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology at the University of Leicester, as part of the Population Genomics research theme.
Our research focuses on genetic diversity, its evolutionary origin and its phenotypic consequences. In particular, we are interested in the evolution and genetic variation of genes in dynamic regions of the genome, and the relationship of this variation with disease.
Structural genomic variation and respiratory disease
DNA sequence differences between people are known to be important variables when trying to understand why individuals are different, particularly in susceptibility to disease. Most people have two copies of most genes: one inherited from their father, one from their mother. However, for some genes, including many involved in the immune response against infection, individuals have more or fewer than two copies. This is caused by duplication or deletion of genes on some chromosomes carried by those people, and we call this “copy number variation”. We are interested in how these changes evolve and their consequences for disease, in particular respiratory diseases.
Structural genomic variation in mesothelioma
Copy number variation can also occur in the somatic tissue of the body. Some cancers show a high level of copy number changes that distinguish the tumour from healthy tissue. We are using evolutionary genomic approaches to understand the copy number changes in the asbestos-related cancer called mesothelioma. This will allow us to identify key weaknesses in the tumour to act as targets for new drugs. For more on our work on mesothelioma, click on this link Mesothelioma research
Beta-defensin copy number variation
We have had a (very!) long-standing interest in beta-defensin copy number variation in humans and other animals. At the moment, our focus is on cattle, where, in collaboration with Drs Kieran Meade (Dublin) and Sean Fair (Limerick) we are investigating the role of beta-defensin copy number variation and fertility.
We are always interested in keen potential PhD students and postdocs - if you are interested in our work then please email me
ejh33(at)le.ac.uk