Our interest in functional genetic variation in relation to mucins and to the lactase gene led to particular focus on the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract and involvement in research into inflammatory disease focussing on these organs.
The work on lactase stimulated my interest in the role of regulatory polymorphisms, and that of the mucins on copy number variation and the implication of such variations to evolution, and impact on patterns of diversity and linkage disequilibrium. Such variations are more likely than exonic variants to have effects that are modulated by environmental exposures. In the context of the intestine these interests led to collaboration on Crohn's Disease with the group of Dr Nik Maniatis (also in GEE ) and the search for the functional genetic variation that underlies susceptibility to this condition (Elding et al., 2011; 2013).