Our aim is to introduce a new measurement technology of urine that allows comprehensive surveys of human metabolism at a low cost and high throughput. The new technology will allow novel comparisons against genetics to be conducted and we aim to use it ourselves to investigate the genetic and environmental factors that increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease in a collection of 127,000 individuals. The new method will provide accurate measurements for over 100 molecules that are present in urine, most of which have not been investigated before in such a large dataset. We expect to produce novel scientific knowledge that is highly relevant for the ageing Finnish population. In particular, we are focusing on the causal links between urinary molecules, genes and diagnoses. This is important, because separating causal associations from non-causal ones will lead us to more effective ways to reduce the burden from cardiometabolic diseases.

2023

2027