VCU news

By Frances Dumenci

In May, Lindon Eaves, Ph.D., will cross the Atlantic Ocean to join colleagues at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom for a three-month stint as a visiting professor.

For Eaves, a professor emeritus in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics of the VCU School of Medicine, it’s a chance to work and interact with fellow English researchers.

His visit to England is supported by the Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professorship Award administered through the University of Bristol Institute for Advanced Studies. The award will support his work with colleagues at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Medicine in Bristol.

Eaves has devoted more than 40 years to the development of mathematical and statistical approaches involved in the analysis of the roles genes and environment play in complex human systems. The causes of most common diseases are numerous, complex and typically involve large numbers of genes and environmental influences that have yet to be identified.

According to Eaves, even though geneticists are able to dissect the genomes of hundreds of thousands of people in astonishing detail, researchers are still far from unpacking the pathways from DNA to clinical outcomes because the networks of causes involve so many genes in long and intricately branching causal chains.

“The pathways in humans are especially challenging because the effects of our genes do not end at the skin, but reach out to the environments we select and create for ourselves and other people, including our spouses and children,” said Eaves. “Furthermore, genetic effects are not usually seen at birth, but unfold over time during the course of development. If we can know the network of causes underlying any complex disease, we might be able to find steps in the process that can be targeted for prevention and treatment.”

The visiting professorship award supports scholars who will contribute to the development of teaching and research in areas of critical significance. The University of Bristol is home to the well-respected MRC Centre for Causal Analysis in Translational Epidemiology (CAiTE), which boasts a distinguished faculty.

“Colleagues at CAiTE were familiar with my work through literature and through participation in a series of NATO and National Institute of Mental Health-funded genetic methodology workshops to which I had contributed for more than two decades,” said Eaves. “The University of Bristol offers an enticing intellectual environment, research program and facilities to encourage progress toward our research goals.”

VCU has an active collaborative relationship with the researchers in Bristol through their landmark Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a study that followed children from before birth into young adulthood. ALSPAC is following up with a detailed assessment of 14,000 pregnant mothers and their children who enrolled in the study in 1991 and 1992.

“The ALSPAC study is a rich resource because the mothers and offspring have provided DNA samples that permit detailed characterization of variation throughout the genome that, in principle, can be used to quantify the contribution of genetic differences to the development of health-related outcomes,” Eaves said..

“I love making sense of numbers. This fellowship will give me some time to upgrade hands-on skills in the computer-based analysis of the next generation of genetic data. It will also give me a chance to think about problems using genetic data to refine causal models and statistical associations between variables in complex systems as well as time to think about how we can improve the teaching of these concepts to our graduate students.”


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