Wellcome Trust PhD Programme for Clinicians at the University of Cambridge. (360G-Wellcome-090663_Z_09_Z)

£213,302

Body weight and fat mass are highly heritable traits. I plan to investigate copy number variants (CNVs) that have been identified in a cohort of patients with severe early onset obesity established by Dr Farooqi at the University of Cambridge. My first goal is to identify CNVs of interest by prioritizing those present in multiple affected individuals and enriched in cases versus controls. Bioinformatic databases will be used to identify any prior information known about whether the genes may be associated with obesity. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) will validate the CNVs and a fine-mapping custom array will attempt to identify the breakpoints. Co-segregation in families may suggest potential pathogenicity. In addition, working with Dr Barroso's team at the WTSI, I will sequence potential genes contained within these CNVs to identify whether rare variants are also associated with severe early onset obesity. I intend to establish whether the zebra-fish can be used as a model organism to study new candidate genes for obesity. Mutations in the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) gene can cause severe obesity in humans. In collaboration with Dr Stemple's group at the WTSI, I plan to characterise the phenotype of an MC4R mutant fish that has been identified and in doing so, develop the techniques for studying other obesity candidate genes in this model organism.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded 213302
Applicant Surname Gayton
Approval Committee Neurosciences And Mental Health
Award Date 2009-08-31T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2008/09
Grant Programme: Title PhD Training Fellowship for Clinicians
Internal ID 090663/Z/09/Z
Lead Applicant Dr Emma Gayton
Partnership Value 213302
Planned Dates: End Date 2011-05-31T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2009-10-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region East of England
Sponsor(s) Prof David Lomas