Lin Bowker-Lonnecker

Award title:  SPCR PhD Studentship 

Project Title:  Using health economic methods to understand the impact of polygenic risk scores in screening for common disease in primary care 

Brief Summary:   

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) reflect the combined effect of many genetic variants that are known to influence the incidence of diseases such as cancer and heart disease. For some health conditions, PRSs are predictive enough that they could potentially be used alongside other data to improve patient outcomes, such as by more effectively identifying those at highest risk of developing the disease. This could then be used to inform decisions for screening programmes, and knowing their scores may also influence how likely people are to respond to screening invitations.  

My DPhil involves quantitative assessments of how people react to risk information, and of how polygenic risk could be used to inform cost-effective disease screening in primary care. This will be done using a range of methods such as performing choice experiments and creating simulation models.  

Start date:  October 2022 

End date:  September 2025