Dr Loukas Moutsianas

Postdoctoral Fellow

Alumni

This person is a member of Sanger Institute Alumni.

My research interests lie broadly in the development and application of statistical methodology and computational tools to elucidate the association between genetic variation and human complex disease. I aspire to contribute to the translation of such associations and other genetic information into an improved understanding of the biological and functional mechanisms underlying such traits, with a particular emphasis in autoimmune diseases.

I am excited to have joined Carl Anderson’s Inflammation and Immunity group at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in September 2015.

Before that, I was part of the team focused on the genetics of Type 2 Diabetes (GoT2D), led by Professor Mark McCarthy at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford. There we looked into whole genome, whole exome and genotyping data on ~ 2650 individuals. I have worked, amongst other things, in exploring what can be learned about the genomic architecture of disease by harnessing such data, and in understanding the extent to which traditional statistical methods and novel gene-based ones can interrogate the genome for the effects of rare variants (and how we can increase our confidence in the quality of the analysis results; see here for more info).

Simultaneously, I was working with Stephen Sawcer, Gil McVean, colleagues from Oxford and elsewhere, and the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium in dissecting the role of the MHC in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and assessing the evidence for interactions involving HLA molecules. For more info on this work see the published manuscript or a video summarising the main findings.

I have been fascinated by the challenge of understanding the association between genetic variation and susceptibility to complex disease, with a special interest in autoimmune disease and the involvement of the HLA molecules. To this end, I have been part of the WTCCC2 group, working on the association of the MHC with common complex diseases, with a particular interest in MS. My PhD research was focused in this area. Moreover, I was part of the International HapMap3 Consortium and the 1000 Genomes Project analysis group.

An up-to-date list of all publications can be found in my Google Scholar profile to the right.