Paul R.H.J. Timmers (Ph.D.)

Thesis title: Human Lifespan: Recent Trends and Genetic Determinants

MRC DTP in Precision Medicine

Year of study: 4

  • College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Contact details

PhD supervisors:

Address

Street

Old Medical School
Teviot Place

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9AG

Biography

Background

Paul Timmers is a postdoctoral data analyst affiliated with the Usher Institute and the MRC Human Genetics Unit.

Qualifications

  • BSc Biochemistry 2015 Bachelor of Science (Honours), Imperial College London, UK   

  • MRes Biosciences: Biology of Ageing and Age-related Disease 2016 Masters of Research (Dean's List), University College London, UK  
  • PhD Precision Medicine 2020 Doctor of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, UK

 

Research summary

Genetics can tell us why some people live longer than others – and this knowledge will lead to therapeutics that keep us healthy for longer. As a statistical geneticist, Paul has investigated the lifespan and health of millions of individuals to discover new longevity genes and presented his work at international conferences including the American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) conference and the European Mathematical Genetics Meeting (EMGM), among others.

During his doctoral training at the University of Edinburgh, he applied his expertise in programming (Unix and R) to population-scale datasets (such as UK Biobank and NHS Scotland). He is now continuing his career in genomic research with a focus on longevity, and working to expand his skillset to include whole-exome and whole-genome analysis, causal inference using Mendelian Randomisation, and the integration of multiple omics datasets. 

Collaboration

Paul has active or previous collaborations with researchers from the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (Lausanne, Switzerland), the Institute of Genomics (University of Tartu, Estonia), and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing (Cologne, Germany).

If you would like to collaborate—especially on an ageing-related project—please contact Paul using the listed email address.

 

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