Postdoc Recipient: Dr Diego Jose Lopez Peralta, Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Melbourne
Supervisors: Professor Shyamali Dharmage & Professor Adrian Lowe
Funding: $40,000 in GERA’s Postdoc Fellowships Round 2 (2026)
About the project: Using Australian twin data from Twins Research Australia, this project will investigate whether ambient air pollution is associated with asthma discordance in twin pairs who share genetic and early-life family background but live at different residential addresses. The study will also examine whether neighbourhood greenness mediates these associations, leveraging established Australian land-use regression models to estimate NO2 and PM2.5 exposure, as well as measures of road proximity and vegetation (NDVI).
Asthma affects just under 2.8 million Australians (approximately one in nine people) and imposes a substantial health and societal burden. While observational evidence links ambient air pollution to asthma, it is difficult to separate the impacts of environmental exposures from familial susceptibility using conventional study designs. This project addresses that limitation by using an asthma-discordant twin design to clarify whether air pollution contributes to asthma expression beyond shared genetics and early-life environment.
By combining genetically informed methods with high-quality exposure assessment and linked health data, the project aims to provide more robust evidence for policy-relevant prevention strategies. The findings will inform environmental health policy, urban planning and public health interventions targeting traffic-related and other sources of air pollution. The project will also generate preliminary data to support future grants focused on environmental risk factors, lung function and COPD in genetically informed respiratory epidemiology.
Go to: