With a background in evolutionary biology, Dr Chiara Batini dedicated the first ten years of her career to the study of human genetic diversity, with a special focus on sex-biased processes and the role of culture and climate in the history of Central African and European populations.
Over the last two years Chiara has steered her career towards the research of clinical relevance, while integrating her skills in population genomics, in order to contribute to the development of precision medicine approaches in the context of multi-ethnicity.
Chiara’s research project aims at embracing multi-ethnicity in studying the genetics of smoking behaviour by performing trans-ethnic genome-wide association studies in individuals of European, African and Asian descent, and by adapting and combining existing methodology from population genetics and genetic epidemiology to test genetic associations in individuals of admixed ancestry.
The results of this project will provide novel insights into the aetiology of smoking behaviour in diverse population, which will help to underpin advances in precision prevention of tobacco-related disease, and contribute to define best practice for the analysis of health data in populations with a different demographic history, and genetic structure, from Europeans.
