What motivated you to come to Bristol and do this programme? 

Bristol is a beautiful and vibrant city, and the University of Bristol is known for its world-leading research in genetic epidemiology. I applied to the MGLE programme in particular, because of the rotation opportunities in the first year, the generous stipend offered by Wellcome and the great outcomes from previous students graduated from this programme. 

What is the key research question of your PhD research project and what have you found out so far? 

My research focuses on integrating genetic/polygenic scores and causal inference techniques such Mendelian randomization, to develop new methodology, to generate open-access resources, and also in applied settings to discover novel causal relationships between exposures and outcomes. The output from my PhD so far includes (1) the evaluation and application of the block jackknife resampling Mendelian randomization method, which is designed to avoid participant overlap in datasets, and (2) the polygenic scores-metabolites atlas which contains the associations between 125 genetically predicted complex traits or diseases and 249 NMR metabolites measured in the UK Biobank. 

Where do you think your research could lead and what are your future career plans now? 

I hope the outcomes generated from my work could help with motivating and advancing the work of other researchers. In the short term, I plan to work as an early-career researcher after PhD graduation and pursue my interest in ageing-related phenotypes and diseases, trans-ancestry studies and drug target discovery and validation.