Dr Nicole Warrington has developed novel statistical analysis methods and applied these to big data in human genetics to address questions regarding the causes and consequences of human health. She has discovered hundreds of genetic variants that are associated with human traits, including birthweight and childhood body mass index. She pioneered a new statistical method to partition genetic effects on birthweight into maternal and foetal components.
This method was instrumental in demonstrating that the relationship between birthweight and adult cardiometabolic disease is driven by genetic effects, overturning 30 years of research into the effects of intrauterine programming. It has also allowed Dr Warrington to elucidate the role of maternal environmental exposures, such as hypertension during pregnancy, on offspring birth weight and later life health. These findings provide critical evidence that improvements in antenatal care aimed at increasing birthweight would have only a modest impact on the rising prevalence of cardiometabolic disease.
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