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Genetic variations have a great potential in mapping causal genes for human diseases. The project aims to identify genetic variants associated with heart, kidney, metabolic, immunological diseases and cancers, and prioritize causal gene identification for new therapeutic development.
Safe People
Organisation name
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma
Organisation sector
Commercial
Applicant name(s)
Zhihao Ding
Funders/ Sponsors
Safe Projects
Project ID
OFHS250009
Lay summary
We aim to use the Our Future Health cohort to identify genetic risk factors for the onset and progression of diseases affecting the heart, kidneys, metabolism and immune systems, as well as cancer. Our goal is to understand the biological processes that lead to disease, how multiple related diseases can occur in one patient, and the involvement of multiple organs. Our objective is to use this information to prioritize new treatment targets and predict how diseases will progress and respond to therapies. At Boehringer Ingelheim, we strive to develop breakthrough medicines for patients. Our research focuses on helping patients with heart, kidney, metabolic, and immune diseases, as well as cancer. One of the main focuses at Boehringer Ingelheim is to identify mechanisms that impact the progression of these diseases. Specifically, we want to understand why they cause long term damage to multiple organs, such as liver, kidney, and heart. One Future Health provides the opportunity to have the largest number of participants to follow the end stage progression across multiple diseases. This would enable us to identify genetic determinants impacting disease severity. Our research goals include: (1) identify genes for diseases which affect their progression, symptoms, and the occurrence of long-term complications. (2) identify patient populations and disease subtypes considering clinical data (including progression over time) and genetic data and use this information to predict disease progression and therapy response in heart, kidney, metabolic, and immune diseases, as well as cancer. The project will enable drug discovery and development for patients with high unmet need.
Public benefit statement
Human genetics evidence has been shown to be able to enrich for successful drug targets, enabling more efficient and faster drug development. The combination of longitudinal phenotype data available in population scale biobanks offers an unique opportunity to explore genetic factors linked to common diseases. We expect that such genetic exploration would be feasible with the large sample size provided by Our Future Health.
Request category type
Public Health Research
Other approval committees
Project start date
08/12/2025
Latest approval date
05/12/2025
Safe Data
Dataset(s) name
Safe Setting
Access type
TRE