John Perry
Associate group leaderResearch summary
Using human genetics to understand disease mechanisms
What are the biological mechanisms that link patterns of growth and reproductive ageing to later life disease? Epidemiological studies have long linked patterns of early-life growth and reproductive ageing to later life diseases, yet the biological mechanisms underpinning these associations remain unclear. For example, what are the pathways that link variation in onset of puberty to risk of type 2 diabetes and cancer decades later?

Selected publications
-
Lam BYH et al. (2021) MC3R links nutritional state to childhood growth and the timing of puberty. Nature 599: 436–441. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04088-9.
-
Ruth KS et al. (2021) Genetic insights into biological mechanisms governing human ovarian ageing. Nature 596: 393–397. DOI: doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03779-7.
-
Ruth KS et al. (2020) Using human genetics to understand the disease impacts of testosterone in men and women. Nat Med 26: 252–258. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0751-5.
-
Thompson DJ et al. (2019) Genetic predisposition to mosaic Y chromosome loss in blood. Nature 575: 652–657. DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1765-3.
-
Perry JRB et al. (2014) Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche. Nature 514: 92–97. DOI: doi.org/10.1038/nature13545.
Biography
Professor John RB Perry PhD, Associate group leader, MRC Investigator and programme leader at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, Principal investigator at the Institute of Metabolic Science, University chair in Molecular Endocrinology
John is a human geneticist interested in understanding the genetic basis of variation in health and disease, with a focus on metabolic and reproductive traits. He holds the University of Cambridge chair of molecular endocrinology and is an Associate group leader here at the Gurdon Institute.
Prior to moving to Cambridge, he was a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow, holding positions at the University of Exeter, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (University of Oxford), Department of Twin Research (Kings College London) and the Center for Statistical Genetics (University of Michigan).