Genetics of inflammation

Inflammation is when a part of the body swells, gets red, hot, and is often painful. Injury and infection are common causes. Like a sprained ankle. Or strep throat. There are also many inflammatory diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, and lupus are examples. There is a link between many of these diseases and other things. RA can put you at risk for obesity, smoking, heart attacks, and high blood pressure. In the same way, one gene change can cause conditions that can seem unrelated. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center will use BioVU to study inflammatory diseases. First, they will get gene change data from trusted sources. They will check each one for a link to a disease. Or to the risk of getting a disease.. More than one gene change can predict risk or a disease. So, they will create a “risk score” for each. Then they will use BioVU to check these links. They will also see if there is a link between the gene changes and risk for other diseases. Their goal is to learn more about inflammatory diseases. They hope to better predict who is at risk for other diseases too. Their results may help us better treat diseases like lupus or RA. They could also help us lower our risk for getting other conditions.