Affiliation

GEDEV, Faculty of Medicine, CMU

Tim Frayling is a human geneticist, working in common and rare disease since 1993. From 2023 he has led a new team at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva studying the genetics and genomics of common metabolic disease focusing on type 2 diabetes, obesity and related conditions. This team uses a combination of human genetics, large datasets and clinical studies to understand the causes and consequences of excess unhealthy weight. Excitingly, these data now involve whole genome sequences from 100,000s people linked to extensive medical and health information. Tim was based at the University of Exeter prior to his move to Geneva. His research teams have become internationally recognised as world leaders in the genetics of common traits and conditions, contributing to the discovery of the first common genetic variants linked to type 2 diabetes, fetal and childhood growth, and obesity. Tim has expertise in the genetics of rare and common disease, having obtained his PhD in 1998 with Andrew Hattersley and Sian Ellard identifying mutations in genes causing monogenic diabetes disorders. Prior to that Tim trained as a diagnostic molecular geneticist with the Oxford Regional health Authority, UK, where he learnt the basics of linkage analysis and Bayesian calculations for risk prediction in families with cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy, in the National Health Service.