Unit Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics

The unit Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics deals with the application, adaptation and development of genetic epidemiological methods as well as with the comparison of various analysis methods. The aim of the group is to make a comprehensive contribution to etiology research by starting from the genetic make-up by consecutively integrating environmental factors, molecular-genetic pathways, gene regulating patterns and, if possible, also the temporal dimension (i.g. life-course) into the models.

The unit’s main research areas are:

• Modeling of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, which are involved in the pathogenesis of a disease
• Analysis of association studies including molecular-genetic pathway information

The unit intends to address the development of methods to analyze gene regulating functions in the future. A further concern of the group is to apply, in suitable situations, analysis methods that allow for causal interpretation as e.g. directed acyclic graphs or the principle of “Mendelian randomization”.