DietBB Seminar Series: The Rhineland Study: The special case of interaction between genetic background and lifestyle

October 15, 2018

Many late-life diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, are complex diseases that develop over a long pre-clinical period. The Rhineland study aims to study the factors and mechanisms that impact brain health and function across the lifespan, including genetic and lifestyle factors.

Loes C.A. Rutten-Jacobs and Monique M.B. Breteler, German Center for Neurodegenerative diseases (DZNE), Population Health Sciences, Bonn, Germany will talk about

The Rhineland Study: The special case of interaction between genetic background and lifestyle.

Abstract: Many late-life diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, are complex diseases that develop over a long pre-clinical period. The Rhineland study aims to study the factors and mechanisms that impact brain health and function across the lifespan, including genetic and lifestyle factors. The importance of genetic background in the risk of these complex diseases has been shown by numerous family studies and genome-wide association studies. In addition, modifiable health behaviors including diet, exercise and smoking are strongly associated with the risk of these late-life complex diseases. Although a genetic background is not modifiable, adherence to a healthy lifestyle may attenuate the associated risk. We will give an overview of our lifestyle and genetic research projects in the Rhineland Study. The Rhineland Study provides an unique opportunity to further investigate the role of genetic factors and lifestyle in the development of complex diseased across the life span, due to a combination of a wide age range of the participants, deep phenotyping and planned follow-up for decades. As an example of research questions in the area of lifestyle and genetics that we plan to address in depth in the Rhineland Study, we present an analysis performed in the UK Biobank study, a prospective population-based cohort study in the United Kingdom. In this analysis the interaction between genetic factors and lifestyle in the risk of stroke was evaluated in 306,473 UK Biobank participants.

Date & Time: Monday, October 15th 2018, 17:00

Location: Nussallee 17, Lecture Hall XVII

 

 

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