Couples who are closely related are at increased risk of having a child with a rare recessive disorder, such as severe learning disability. I am focusing on British Pakistanis since they are one of the largest ethnic minorities in the UK, and because in this community, people often marry their cousin or someone from the same biraderi group. This work follows recent studies by the Martin lab increasing our understanding of the impact of such marital practices on the patterns of genetic variation in this community.
Prior to Sanger I completed a PhD in Statistical Genetics at the University of Oxford. There I worked with Pier Palamara and developed methods for large-scale association studies, with a particular focus on rare variation and efficiency, while working with UK Biobank.