Deadly pSIN: proteomic smoking index captures the biological imprint of smoking, predicts disease risk and identifies key risk modifiers in the UK biobank

Tuesday, 2 June 2026, 1pm to 2pm

Bio:
Cornelia's research within the Oxford Big Data Institute focuses on large-scale –omics studies of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer, Parkinson and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and ophthalmological disorders including glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and myopia.

She further studies systemic vascular, endocrine and gastrointestinal pathology that is relevant for brain and ocular function. Her current research portfolio includes cross-omics research integrating (epi)genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic and microbiome data of epidemiological cohorts with state of the art brain imaging and cellular model systems.

Over the years, Cornelia has been a leading figure in several international consortia including ENGAGE (European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology), CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart & Aging Research in Genome Epidemiology), IGAP (International Genetics of Alzheimer Disease Project, ADSP (Alzheimer Disease Sequencing Project) and IGGC (International Genetics of Glaucoma Consortium).

At present, she is the leader of two major consortia: the Horizon2020 CoSTREAM consortium aiming to understand the link between stroke and Alzheimer disease and the MEMORABEL Gut-Brain consortium aiming to unravel the role of the gut microbiome in Alzheimer disease and brain pathology.

She further leads the human proteomics and metabolomics discovery research in the Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) ADAPTED programme, which aims to identify new Alzheimer medicines through understanding the function of the APOE gene. Cornelia is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Netherlands Council for Medical Sciences (RMW).

Cornelia studied Human Nutrition and Mathematical Statistics at the Agricultural University of Wageningen and Genetics and Epidemiology at the Erasmus University Medical School.

There will be tea/coffee and cake available in the atrium 30 min before the seminar.

Speaker(s): Professor Cornelia van Duijn (NDPH)

Series: Richard Doll Seminar

Venue: Richard Doll Building - Lecture Theatre - Lecture Theatre Richard Doll Building Old Road Campus Oxford Oxfordshire OX3 7LF United Kingdom

Department: Nuffield Department of Population Health (Department)

Organiser: Michelle Goonasekera

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