Professor Naomi Wray still vividly remembers sitting in the library in North London aged 12, poring over a university-level textbook trying to work out her risk of mental illness in later life.
It wasn’t a theoretical question.
“I learnt at an early age not to tell people that my father had a serious mental illness; my childhood drawings instead depicting him in hospital with a thermometer in his mouth,” Naomi says.
Uncovering the risk of mental illness
“My own experience of how mental illness affects individuals and families motivates my research every day – and led to my interest in the genetic factors associated with disease risk.”
Five decades later, Naomi is a world leader in understanding the genetic contribution to psychiatric and neurological disorders. And just as her personal life influenced her choice of career, Naomi’s choice of career also had a significant impact on her personal life.
Professional and personal collide
While a PhD student in Edinburgh, she tutored a Dutch masters student. Peter Visscher would go on to become a professor, close collaborator of Naomi’s – and her husband.
Peter is a world expert in developing advanced statistical models to handle extremely large data sets. This enables an understanding of the genetic basis of differences in risk of disease and other traits between individuals, such as height. Peter used height as a mathematical model for researching complex traits because it is easy to measure, has large data sets and is very heritable.
Peter and Naomi went on to establish a joint Program in Complex Trait Genomics, which together with their IMB genomics colleagues, is pushing the boundaries of genetics and genomics at the level of populations and individuals. They are particularly recognised for their pivotal role in developing Polygenic Risk Scores, which provide a quantitative measure of your genetic risk of a common disease.
Building connections for the future
Naomi and Peter are now sharing their significant expertise with the Big Data Institute at the University of Oxford – with a joint appointment with IMB, they are building strong connections to further boost genetics research and provide more certainty for children and families in the future.
