Louise V. Wain is a British genetic epidemiologist currently serving as the
British Lung Foundation Chair in Respiratory Research at the
University of Leicester. Her research considers
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Wain studied the long-term impacts of COVID-19.
Early life and education
Wain was an undergraduate student at the
University of Manchester, where she studied micro- and molecular biology. She remained there for her graduate studies, where she earned a bachelor's degree in
bioinformatics
Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...
. Wain earned her doctoral degree at the
University of Nottingham, where she studied
RNA virus
An RNA virus is a virusother than a retrovirusthat has ribonucleic acid (RNA) as its genetic material. The nucleic acid is usually single-stranded RNA ( ssRNA) but it may be double-stranded (dsRNA). Notable human diseases caused by RNA viruses ...
es. In 2007, after earning her doctorate, Wain moved to the
University of Leicester as a postdoctoral research fellow.
Research and career
Wain studies how genetic variations impact a patient's risk of developing respiratory disease. Her research makes use of
UK Biobank data to better understand the genetic determinants of blood pressure.
Small changes in blood pressure can considerably impact a person's likelihood of developing stroke or cardiovascular disease, and Wain hopes that better understanding the genetics can identify what predicts response to
antihypertensive drugs.
In 2017 Wain was awarded a
British Lung Foundation Chair in Respiratory Research at the
University of Leicester.
Wain has studied the genetic differences associated with developing
chronic lung disease Chronic lung disease may refer to:
* Asthma
* Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
* Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms a ...
.
In a study of over 400,000 people Wain identified over 100 genetic differences that were likely to increase someone's risk of developing
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
She has also investigated what puts people at risk of developing
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), identifying three genes associated with suffering from IPF). Typically, people who are diagnosed with IPF die three years after diagnosis and there is no cure. In particular, Wain believes that targeting the
AKAP13 biological pathway might lead to new treatments for IPF.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic Wain studied the long-term effects of the mild form of COVID-19.
Between 10 and 20% of users of the
COVID Symptom Study
The Zoe Health Study, formerly the COVID Symptom Study, is a health research project of British company Zoe Limited (formerly Zoe Global limited) which uses a mobile app that runs on Android and iOS.
The app was created in 2020 in response to ...
application endured symptoms for longer than the average two week period.
In July 2020 Wain was awarded £8.4 million to study the health outcomes of patients who were hospitalised with COVID-19 and went on to have long-term impacts on their health.
Select publications
*
*
*
References
External links
Louise Wainat University of Leicester
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wain, Louise
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
COVID-19 researchers
Alumni of the University of Manchester
Alumni of the University of Leicester