Project title

Genomic epidemiology of addictions and their consequences - national, Nordic and international dimensions

Though smoking has become rarer in Finland, one fourth of adult Finns continue to smoke, and smoking-related mortality and morbidity is a major preventable cause at the population level. Though most smokers wish to stop, only a few are successful. I propose to continue and deepen a series of studies on the genomic epidemiology of smoking and nicotine dependence, based on analyses of smoking behavior, nicotine dependence and consequent health outcomes, primarily in the Finnish Twin Cohort (the FinnTwin12 study, older cohort and , the Finnish Family Study of Nicotine Dependence) and Sequencing Initiative Suomi (SISu) national cohorts We aim to find genes increasing the susceptibility to develop nicotine dependence, genes related to smoking cessation and persistence, and investigate their population impact. Epigenetic analyses in Finnish and international data sets will complement the genetic analyses to illuminate possible mechanisms linking smoking exposure to tobacco-related diseases.