Research Areas

Research Areas

Ageing

The longitudinal nature of TwinsUK makes it an ideal cohort in which to study the process of ageing. Our ageing research includes normal brain ageing, investigating the genetic and environmental determinants of cognitive decline, and age-related cardiovascular changes such as hypertension. We have also investigated diet and how fast we age by studying telomeres, which are markers of our biological clock. To address the dual challenge of climate change and ageing populations, Prof Claire Steves, Head of Department together with researchers from across the university has set up the new King’s Centre for Ageing Resilience in a Changing environment (CARICE). The Centre works to understand the mechanisms that enable individuals to maintain health and full function, bringing together scientists and clinicians. It also provides a research environment to support early career researchers in this field. Find out more with Professor Claire Steves and Dr Ruth Bowyer in this webinar:

Genomics & Omics

Much of our research uses omics technologies. Our researchers are utilising metabolomics, glycomics, microbiomics, nutriomics and epigenomics to investigate the causes of common diseases.
In the last few years, new high throughput technologies have allowed us to measure metabolites in human plasma/serum, stool, urine and saliva and provided a new powerful tool to investigate the cause of common conditions such as cardiometabolic traits and age relates disorders as well as the influcence of lifestyle choices. We are also looking at metabolic markers in our blood to see if we can use these rather than questionnaires to measure what nutrients and vitamins we eat.
We are also comparing our diets with our gut microbiome, the composition of which can determine if we are fat or thin. We have characterised the gut microbiome of our twin volunteers using sequencing of 16s rDNA and entire metagenomes, to understand the role of the microbiome in human health and disease.
Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, can be subject to genetic, environmental and stochastic influences, and can have important downstream effects on the regulation of gene expression, normal development and disease. Our research focuses on the epigenetic basis of human health and disease in twins, as well as on understanding the factors driving epigenetic variation.

Population health

At TwinsUK, we want to understand what keeps people healthy, not just what causes disease. Our population health research looks at how things like lifestyle, where we live, and our everyday environment change our health over time. Because we study twins, we can also figure out what’s down to genetics, and what’s influenced by the world around us.  TwinsUK is one of the most detailed health studies in the world, with information collected from our volunteers over many years. This includes health records, clinic visits, questionnaires, and biological samples. It gives us the ability to identify patterns in ageing, wellbeing, and common health conditions.  To make our research even more impactful, we work with some of the UK’s largest health and population organisations: 

  • UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK-LLC) brings together data from over 20 studies like ours, and securely links with NHS, social, and environmental records. This helps researchers ask bigger, broader questions, using real world data.  
  • Population Research UK (PRUK) helps improve access to these big studies by making it easier to find and use data. It brings the research community together to work more efficiently and make discoveries that can shape healthcare and policies.  
  • CLOSER supports collaboration across social and health studies. They help researchers work together across different areas to get a more complete understanding of people’s lives.  
At King’s College London, we also work closely with projects like The COVID Symptom Study Biobank (CSSB) and Healthspan Connect, looking at things like COVID-19 to better understand the long term effects, and help people live longer and happier lives.  By working together, our data can be used alongside other studies to answer even bigger and more important questions, helping to improve health for everyone.     

Nutrition

At the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, we investigate how diet, genes, the microbiome, and lifestyle shape long-term health. Drawing on the unique TwinsUK cohort, we combine twin comparisons with deep phenotyping and multi-omic data (including genomics, metabolomics, and microbiome sequencing) to disentangle complex relationships between diet and health.
Our nutrition research includes running randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to test the effects of dietary interventions on health, helping us understand how specific nutrients, foods and dietary patterns impact human biology as well as exploring different metabolomics datasets for metabolic markers of dietary exposures. By integrating observational data with interventional studies, we’re building an evidence base to inform real-world nutrition strategies that support healthy ageing and disease prevention. 

Covid-19

We have been working on a number of different studies to understand the biology of COVID-19 and the body’s response, as well as the effects of the pandemic on physical and mental health. This has only been possible thanks to the incredible commitment and support of our twins. We are very grateful to our twins, who have been taking part in studies throughout the pandemic. Find out more about our COVID-19 research with Professor Claire Steves and Professor Tim Spector in this webinar:

Biosocial research

Our goal is to understand how genetic variation relates to human health and disease and genetics underlies almost all research at the DTR. We have collected genetic information on over 6,000 twins (both monozygotic and dizygotic) using both state of the art genotyping (Illumina platform) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) techniques.

We have collaborated with international research groups to identify genes causing the most common, and sometimes lethal, conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, fractures, and osteoarthritis.

CARICE

To address the dual challenge of climate change and ageing populations, Prof Claire Steves, Head of Department together with researchers from across the university has set up the new King’s Centre for Ageing Resilience in a Changing environment (CARICE). The Centre works to understand the mechanisms that enable individuals to maintain health and full function, bringing together scientists and clinicians. It also provides a research environment to support early career researchers in this field. Check out the highlights from the CARICE Science and Networking Conference March 2025 here.

Learn More About CARICE