Our Psoriasis Genetics and Genomics Research group is investigating the genetics, genomics and pathophysiology of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
We are interested in identification of rare psoriasis-associated variants and in enhanced imputation and disease association analysis within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC). Our studies are focused on describing the transcriptome (the measurement of which genes are turned on and by how much) of normal vs. psoriatic skin and on measuring the blood transcriptomes, in order to find additional biomarkers for predicting the risk of psoriatic arthritis.
This ongoing research combines the power of large genome-wide association studies, transcriptome analysis, and the largest collection of psoriasis-related DNA/tissue samples in the world to enhance our mechanistic understanding of the causes of psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and associated co-morbidities.
Our research focuses on identifying biomarkers for the development of psoriatic arthritis and cutaneous psoriasis and aims to integrate these biomarkers into a clinical application for identification of psoriatic arthritis through use of machine learning, In addition, we are examining the mechanisms by which the IL23R gene contributes to the development of psoriatic arthritis. This work aims to discover how these mechanisms contribute to disease progression from psoriasis to psoriatic arthritis.
We seek to better understand the large majority of psoriasis genetic signals that do not encode structural change. We are currently examining the effects of psoriasis-associated genetic variation on chromatin structure and gene expression in skin-homing T-cells and myeloid dendritic cells.
View our publications on Psoriasis Genetics and Genomics.
