Evropi Theodoratou Research Group

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Research in a Nutshell

Professor Theodoratou’s research interest is on colorectal cancer epidemiology. Her research group focuses on projects in genetic, molecular and clinical epidemiology.

There are currently three major areas of interest in the group:

1. Her recently awarded CRUK CDF aims to improve colorectal cancer identification from population screening and diagnostic pathways for symptomatic populations. The ultimate target is to reduce overall death rate through improving survival outcomes and the patient journeys for those with symptoms that might indicate colorectal cancer. To explore this she develops and evaluates risk prediction models for targeted CRC screening, follow-up and treatment.
2. Another active area of the group is the application of the phenome-wide association study methodology (PheWAS) to investigate the associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms related to biomarker levels (vitamin D, uric acid) and multiple clinical outcomes using data from the UK Biobank. A large number of genome wide association studies have been performed that led to the identification of genetic polymorphisms that increase the risk of disease development. PheWAS is an alternative and complementary approach that has recently been developed to query genotype-phenotype associations.
3. Dr Theodoratou is interested in developing and applying new research methods in relation to empirical research and evidence-based medicine. For example, with colleagues from Stanford University (Ioannidis JP) and Imperial (Tzoulaki I) she has been working on a number of umbrella reviews of risk factors in relation to multiple health outcomes and traits.

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Collaborations

• Professor Harry Campbell, University of Edinburgh
• Professor Malcolm Dunlop, University of Edinburgh
• Professor Julian Little, Ottawa University
• Professor Paul McKeigue, University of Edinburgh
• Professor John Ioannidis, University of Stanford
• Dr Lina Zgaga, Trinity College Dublin
• Dr Ioanna Tzoulaki, Imperial College London
• Professor Robert Steele, University of Dundee
• Dr Peter Hall, University of Edinburgh
• Dr Evangelos Evangelou, Imperial College London
• Dr Kostas Tsilidis, Imperial College London

Partners and Funders

• Cancer Research UK/CDF/6yrs/£1.5M
• Cancer Reesearh UK/Programme/5yrs/£3.3M
• UK Biobank