Sufyan Suleman

Why I do this

My research combines genetics, statistics and human biology. I study how genetic variation contributes to differences in metabolic and psychiatric health, from insulin sensitivity, obesity and type 2 diabetes to the biology that obesity shares with psychiatric disorders.

This interest grew out of a career path that did not run in a straight line. I have moved through several fields of health, medicine and biology, from protein biochemistry, developmental biology and cancer genomics at the bench, through experimental disease models, to statistics, data science and human genetics. Each field taught me to look at health from a different level, first molecules and cells, then organisms, and finally populations.

Moving between these fields also taught me how to approach a question. Look beyond the average. Test the result. Ask what biology could explain it. Build the tools that let others do the same.

Today I work with large-scale human data and statistical genetics to move from association towards understanding. Each person carries a unique combination of genetic variants, part of what makes them who they are and part of why their risk of disease differs from that of others. Reading this variation, together with what can be measured in the person, is the first step towards an understanding of health, disease and treatment that starts from the individual.