nilufer3My general research interest is to study the underlying genetic and environmental factors of complex traits with substantial public health impact. I have an environmental health and genetic epidemiology background.

My present research is on investigation of genetic and environmental background of endometriosis, a common women's health condition with considerable public health impact. Endometriosis is an oestrogen-dependent complex disease with an estimated prevalence of 10% in women of reproductive age. A large prospective cohort study involving 116,000 women participating in the Nurses Health Study II provided strong evidence that, besides patterns of increased exposure to menstruation, reduced body mass index (BMI) and possibly reduced waist-hip ratio (WHR) also increase risk of endometriosis.

As both endometriosis and obesity-related traits are heritable, my research aims to investigate the potential commonality (pleiotropy) in genetic variants underlying their aetiology and identify common pathogenic pathways, using data from the endometriosis genome-wide association study (GWAS) by the International Endometriosis Consortium (IEC) and BMI, WHR GWA studies by the GIANT consortium. Furthermore, the identified pleiotropic loci are investigated in the Nurses Health Study, which has data on both endometriosis and obesity-related traits, to further explore their correlation and the potential influence of the covariates.

Publications:

1. Rahmioglu N, Heaton J, Clement G, Gill R, Surdulescu G, Zlobecka K, Hodgkiss D, Ma Y, Hider RC, Smith NW, Ahmadi KR. Genetic epidemiology of induced CYP3A4 activity. Pharmacogenet Genomics. 2011 Oct; 21(10):642-651.

2. Rahmioglu N, Le Gall G, Philo M, Colquhoun I, Ahmadi KR, Kemsley K. Prediction of variability in CYP3A4 induction through an integrative 1H NMR metabonomics approach. J Proteome Res. 2011 Jun; 10(6):2807-2816.

3. Rahmioglu N, Ahmadi KR. Classical twin design in modern pharmacogenomics studies. Pharmacogenomics. 2010; 11(2):215-226.

4. Rahmioglu N, Andrew T, Cherkas L, Surdulescu G, Swaminathan R, Spector T, Ahmadi KR. Epidemiology and genetic epidemiology of liver function test proteins. PLoS One. 2009; 4(2):e4435. 2009; 4(2):e4435.

5. Chambers JC, Zhang W, Sehmi J, Li X, Wass MN, Van der Harst P, Holm H, Sanna S, Kavousi M, Baumeister SE, Coin LJ, Deng G, Gieger C, Heard-Costa NL, Hottenga JJ, Kühnel B, Kumar V, Lagou V, Liang L, Luan J, Vidal PM, Leach IM, O'Reilly PF, Peden JF, Rahmioglu N, Soininen P, Speliotes EK, Yuan X, Thorleifsson G, Alizadeh BZ, Atwood LD, Borrecki IB, Brown MJ, Charoen P, Cucca F, Das D, Geus EJC, Dixon AL, Döring A, Ehret G, Eyjolfsson GI, Farrall M, Forouhi NG, Friedrich N, Goessling W, Gudbjartsson DF, Harris TB, Hartikainen AL, Heath S, Hirschfield GM, Hofman A, Homuth G, Hyppönen E, Janssen HLA, Johnson T, Kangas A, Kema IP, Kühn JP, Lai S, Lathrop M, Lerch MM, Li Y, Liang TJ, Lin JP, Loos RJF, Martin NG, Moffat MF, Montgomery GW, Munroe PB, Musunuru K, Nakamura Y, O'Donnell CJ, Olafsson I, Penninx BW, Pouta A, Prins BP, Prokopenko I, Puls R, Ruokonen A, Savolainen MJ, Schlessinger D, Schouten JNL, Seedorf U, Sen-Chowdhry S, Siminovitch KA, Smit JH, Spector TD, Tan W, Teslovich TM, Tukiainen T, Uitterlinden AG, Van der Klauw MM, Vasan RS, Wallace C, Wallaschofski H, Wichmann HE, Willemsen G, Würtz P, Xu C, Yerges-Armstrong LM, AlcGen Consortium, DIAGRAM+ Study, GIANT Consortium, Global Lipids Genetics Consortium, GOLD Consortium, ICBP, MAGIC, Abecasis GR, Ahmadi KR, Boomsma DI, Caulfield M, Cookson WO, van Duijn CM, Froguel P, Matsuda K, McCarthy MI, Meisinger C, Mooser V, Pietiläinen KH, Schumann G, Snieder H, Sternberg MJE, Stolk RP, Thorsteinsdottir U, Uda M, Waeber M, Wareham NJ, Waterworth DM, Watkins H, Whitfield J, Witteman JCM, Wolffenbuttel BHR, Fox CS, Ala-Korpela M, Stefansson K, Vollenweider P, Völzke H, Schadt EE, Scott J, Järvelin MR, Elliott P, Kooner JS. Genome-wide association study identifies loci influencing concentrations of liver enzymes in plasma. Nat Genet. 2011.

6. Heaton J, Rahmioglu N, Ahmadi KR, Legido-Quigley C, Smith NW. Rapid quantification of quinine and its major metabolite (3S)-3-hydroxyquinine in diluted urine by UPLC-MS/MS. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2011 Jun; 55(3):4940-499.

7. Hattis D, Rahmioglu N, Goble R, Verma P, Hartman K, Kozlak M. Quantitative analysis of empirical data on age related susceptibility to carcinogenesis from non-mutagenic carcinogens. Crit Rev Toxicol. 2009; 39(2):97-138.

Contact details:

E-mail: nilufer.rahmioglu@well.ox.ac.uk