申请者从事2型糖尿病和冠心病分子流行病学研究，将分子流行病学和生物学功能研究结合，发现一批2型糖尿病和冠心病易感性相关的遗传变异并探讨其生物学功能；并探讨环境-基因交互作用在疾病易感性中的作用；以全基因组关联研究对相关生物学性状进行系统遗传学解析。在Circulation、Gut、ATVB、Hum Mol Genet、J Biol Chem、Diabetes和Int J Epidemiol等杂志发表SCI论文60篇，被引用581次，H因子13，其中通讯作者10篇，第一和并列第一作者18篇，入选教育部新世纪优秀人才计划。本项目通过对候选区域精细定位和功能验证，明确2型糖尿病易感位点及生物学功能；探讨环境 (环境内分泌干扰物和重金属水平)和表观遗传学因素(DNA甲基化、miRNAs和lncRNAs）在2型糖尿病发生发展中的作用，并在队列人群中验证，为制订中国人群2型糖尿病预防对策提供科学依据。

My major area of research interest is molecular epidemiology. We apply a variety of molecular epidemiological and biochemical methods to investigate the associations between genetic variants and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, and to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms of these genetic variants in the development of these diseases. We have identified several coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci by candidate gene association studies and genome wide association studies involving gene-environment interactions and genotype-phenotype correlation. Moreover, we carried out genome wide association studies to dissect the genetic susceptibility of multiple traits including lipid levels, IL-18 levels, BMI and so on. We published 60 SCI papers, such as Circulation, Gut, Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, Hum Mol Genet, Diabetologia, Int J Epidemiol, J Biol Chem, and Diabetes, including 10 papers as corresponding author and 18 papers as first or co-first author. My current H factor in web of science is 13, with total citations 581. In 2012, I was sponsored by the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of the Ministry of Education. The overall goal of the proposal is to refine the association signals and pinpoint causal variants of type 2 diabetes by conducting targeted re-sequencing and fine-mapping of the promising genomic regions. In addition, we will investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms of the genetic variants in the development of type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, we plan to investigate the effects of heavy metal and environmental endocrine disruptor levels and epigenetics factors (DNA methylation, miRNAs, and lncRNAs) on type 2 diabetes and validate these results in a cohort study. The present study will provide scientific evidences to prevent type 2 diabetes in China.