Palmer Colin

Biography

Professor Palmer earned a BSc in Genetics from Glasgow University in 1985 and a PhD in Molecular Toxicology from the University of London  in 1991.  He worked as a American Heart Association postdoctoral fellow with Professor Eric Johnson  at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California from 1991 to 1995, and joined the  laboratory of Professor Roland Wolf at the Biomedical Research Centre in Ninewells Hospital in 1995. In 1998, Professor Palmer established his own laboratory at the Biomedical  Research Centre, as a Principal Investigator and lecturer.  Professor Palmer was appointed to the Personal Chair of Pharmacogenomics in 2008. His lab specializes in population genetic research and has research projects studying the genetic basis for susceptibility to common diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, asthma and cancer. He has published over 170 papers in top journals including papers in Science, Nature, Nature Genetics and the New England Medical Journal. These papers have been cited by over 10,000 other studies worldwide.  Current studies involve using the electronic medical register to link patient outcome to genomic information, including GWAS and next generation sequencing data.  This will provide new drug targets for the prevention and treatment of such diseases and will also allow for more informed and personalised usage of current therapies.

Research Interest

Currently over 10% of the Tayside population (~40,000 individuals) have enrolled in genetic studies into the genetics of health and disease.  These individuals have played an important role in many discoveries of the genetics of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, eczema, asthma and many others. Biobanking DNA in populations with rich electronic medical records such as Tayside allows for a wide range of hypothesis testing and gene discovery. EMR phenotypes allow for empirical evaluation of determinants of disease outcome and response to therapy as well as adverse drug effects.    Evaluation of the genetic architecture of response to current medications suggest novel pathways for novel drug design as well as providing stratification algorithms for the design of clinical trials of novel agents.