Proteomics, biological age and MLTCs
Supervisors:
Prof Ewan Pearson, School of Medicine, University of Dundee
Dr Chris Sainsbury, Honorary Clinical Reader University of Dundee
Prof Colin McCowan, School of Medicine, University of St Andrews
Summary:
Why do some people with diabetes develop multiple long-term conditions earlier than others? This PhD will use Scotland’s linked diabetes data to study biological ageing from three complementary angles: proteins in blood, retinal images, and electronic health records. The student will test whether “ageing clocks” built from these data identify different patterns of cardiovascular, kidney, cancer/cachexia, frailty and mental-health comorbidity, and whether deprivation modifies these trajectories. The project will also explore whether diabetes therapies such as metformin and GLP1RA are associated with slower biological ageing or reduced accumulation of long-term conditions, using target-trial-emulation methods. The fellow will gain training in epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, causal inference, multi-state models, AI/transformer modelling, retinal-image and proteomic biomarker analysis, and patient/public involvement. The project is suitable for a health professional interested in diabetes, ageing, multimorbidity/MLTCs, data science or clinical epidemiology.