Developing and applying biologically plausible statistical models for normal and non-normal family data

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/400255

Funding Status
Closed

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Funded Activity Summary

Although molecular and computing advances have enabled more detailed investigations of inherited diseases and the ability to fit realistic statistical models to these data, limitations still exist when analysing family data. Often only basic statistical analyses are performed, due to the lack of understanding of complexities within the data and-or inability of researchers to fit appropriate statistical models. These factors have hampered the search for genes and environmental factors influencing common diseases. This project aims to develop novel, biologically realistic statistical models for investigation of common, complex diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, in families. These models will incorporate both measured and unmeasured genetic and environmental factors, and will be applicable to both normally distributed and non-normally distributed traits. Model fitting will use computer-intensive simulation techniques. Application of the models to data from two large pre-existing studies of international renown, the Victorian Family Heart Study and the Australian Prostate Cancer Family Study, will enable a better understanding of the genetic and environmental factors influencing heart disease and cancer. The models will also be applicable to many other studies of diseases which use data from families, and allow more accurate and useful information to be obtained from data. Software will also be made freely available to other researchers. This will ultimately translate into better outcomes from familial genetic research, and eventually, better prevention, detection, and treatment of the diseases.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2006

End Date: 01-01-2008

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $339,700.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Applied Statistics

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Biostatistics and correlated data | Cardiovascular disease | Complex disease | Complex disease epidemiology | Genetic epidemiology | Prostate cancer

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