Janice is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Epidemiology and Public Health Group at the University of Exeter Medical School. Janice’s research focuses on the analysis of environmental and genetic risk factors of ageing and age-related diseases. Janice has a particular research interest in the common genetic condition hereditary haemochromatosis, which can cause iron overload.
Janice holds a BSc Human Biology (Loughborough University), MSc Epidemiology (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and PhD in Epidemiology (University College London). Janice is currently funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellowship, investigating how to improve the diagnosis of hereditary haemochromatosis.
Janice’s research on hereditary haemochromatosis in UK Biobank has found that male p.C282Y homozygotes have a ten-fold increase in the risk of liver cancer, a doubling in the risk of dementia and substantial excess sarcopenia, frailty, and chronic pain compared to those without mutations:
• Association of hemochromatosis HFE p.C282Y homozygosity with hepatic malignancy
• Hemochromatosis mutations, brain iron imaging, and dementia in the UK Biobank cohort
• Hereditary hemochromatosis associations with frailty, sarcopenia and chronic pain: evidence from 200,975 older UK Biobank participants
https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?web_id=Janice_Atkins