Postdoc Recipient: Dr Yaoyao Qian, Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Melbourne
Supervisors: Professor Shyamali Dharmage, A/Professor Julia Steinberg, A/Professor Shuai Li.
Funding: $40,000 in GERA’s Postdoc Fellowships Round 2 (2026)
About the project: Using the large, population-based Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS), this project will investigate how inherited genetic susceptibility shapes asthma trajectories across the life course. TAHS recruited all 7-year-old school children in Tasmania in 1968 and has followed them into their seventh decade, with repeated asthma assessments from childhood to age 53 years. Distinct lifetime asthma trajectories (including persistent and remitting phenotypes) have already been identified in this cohort.
Building on this foundation, Dr Qian will calculate asthma polygenic risk scores (PRSs) using genome-wide data available for TAHS participants, and examine whether higher PRSs are associated with different lifetime asthma trajectories compared with people who never develop asthma. The project will also test whether early-life exposures (such as parental smoking and childhood pneumonia) modify the relationship between genetic risk and asthma trajectories.
This will be the first study globally to evaluate whether asthma PRSs can predict lifetime asthma trajectories from childhood to middle age in a population-based cohort. By clarifying how genetic risk and early-life environment jointly influence long-term asthma patterns, the project aims to inform precision prevention approaches, including earlier identification and targeted monitoring of individuals at high genetic risk of persistent asthma. The findings could ultimately contribute to future asthma policy and practice by providing evidence on the potential role of genetic information in risk-stratified prevention and personalised management frameworks.
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