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Dr Raha Pazoki
Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences

Research area(s)

Dr. Raha Pazoki’s research focuses on health data science with a strong emphasis on cardiometabolic and ageing-related diseases. Her work integrates genomics, epidemiology, and artificial intelligence to uncover genetic and environmental determinants of conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, liver dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease. She was the first to identify 517 novel genetic loci linked to liver enzymes and demonstrated their causal role in heart disease. Using Mendelian randomization, she clarifies causal pathways between biomarkers (e.g., liver enzymes, lipid levels) and age-related conditions, improving understanding of how genetic predispositions interact with lifestyle factors like diet, alcohol, and physical activity. Her studies also show that lifestyle interventions, such as exercise, can mitigate genetic risk, offering actionable insights for prevention and healthy ageing.

The impact of her work spans clinical and societal domains. Clinically, she advances precision medicine by integrating genetic risk scores with lifestyle and clinical data to enable personalized treatment strategies, particularly for ageing populations with complex health profiles. Her research supports early detection of stroke, liver cirrhosis, and metabolic syndrome, and informs screening guidelines for at-risk individuals. Societally, her findings guide public health campaigns promoting healthy behaviours tailored to genetic risk, reduce health inequities through inclusive genomic research, and leverage AI to predict health outcomes in ageing populations. By bridging big data with clinical practice, Dr. Pazoki’s work not only addresses global challenges in cardiometabolic and ageing diseases but also shapes the future of personalized medicine, prevention strategies, and wellbeing across diverse populations. Scorll down this page for full detail of her research.

Dr Paozki is a founder and director of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research Group hosting researchers and academics across Brunel university with direct or indirect research interest involving cardiometabolic aetiology, prevention, and health. We work in various areas to identify causes of cardiometabolic diseases (environmental, lifestyle, molecular, and clinical) and provide insight into how they interplay. We use the information for better prevention of cardiometabolic diseases in the community.  

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If you are a MSc graduates (with upper second class degree or higher) in the relevant field to the above research area, please contact Dr Raha Pazoki (raha.pazoki@brunel.ac.uk).

Postgraduate fees and funding | Brunel University London or Scholarships and Bursaries | Brunel University London and Other funding | Brunel University London

Selected list of publications by Dr Raha Pazoki

Karkia, R., Maccarthy, G., Payne, A., Karteris, E., Pazoki, R., & Chatterjee, J. (n.d.). The Association Between Metabolic Syndrome and the Risk of Endometrial Cancer in Pre- and Post-Menopausal Women: A UK Biobank Study. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 14(3), 751. doi:10.3390/jcm14030751

Hezekiah, C., & Pazoki, R. (2024). Physical activity and favourable adiposity genetic liability reduce the risk of hypertension among high body mass individuals. doi:10.1101/2024.12.18.24319295

MacCarthy, G., & Pazoki, R. (2024). Using Machine Learning to Evaluate the Value of Genetic Liabilities in the Classification of Hypertension within the UK Biobank. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 13(10), 1-20. doi:10.3390/jcm13102955

Hezekiah, C., Blakemore, A. I., Bailey, D. P., & Pazoki, R. (2024). Physical activity alters the effect of genetic determinants of adiposity on hypertension among individuals of European ancestry in the UKB. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 34(5), 1-13. doi:10.1111/sms.14636

O’Farrell, F., Aleyakpo, B., Mustafa, R., Jiang, X., Pinto, R. C., Elliott, P., . . . Pazoki, R. (2023). Evidence for involvement of the alcohol consumption WDPCP gene in lipid metabolism, and liver cirrhosis. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1-13. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-47371-7

Hezekiah, C., Blakemore, A. I., Bailey, D. P., & Pazoki, R. (2023). Physical activity reduces the effect of adiposity genetic liability on hypertension risk in the UK Biobank cohort. doi:10.1101/2023.09.22.23295992

Roa-Díaz, Z. M., Teuscher, J., Gamba, M., Bundo, M., Grisotto, G., Wehrli, F., . . . Muka, T. (2022). Gene-diet interactions and cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review of observational and clinical trials. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 22(1), 1-22. doi:10.1186/s12872-022-02808-1

O'Farrell, F., Jiang, X., Aljifri, S., & Pazoki, R. (2022). Molecular Alterations Caused by Alcohol Consumption in the UK Biobank: A Mendelian Randomisation Study. Nutrients, 14(14), 1-14. doi:10.3390/nu14142943

Jiang, X., Anasanti, M. D., Drenos, F., Blakemore, A. I., & Pazoki, R. (2022). Urinary Sodium Excretion Enhances the Effect of Alcohol on Blood Pressure. Healthcare, 10(7), 1-13. doi:10.3390/healthcare10071296

Jiang, X., Anasanti, M., Drenos, F., Blakemore, A., & Pazoki, R. (2022). Urinary Sodium Excretion Enhances the Effect of Alcohol on Blood Pressure. doi:10.20944/preprints202205.0385.v1

Said, S., Pazoki, R., Karhunen, V., Võsa, U., Ligthart, S., Bodinier, B., . . . Dehghan, A. (2022). Genetic analysis of over half a million people characterises C-reactive protein loci. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1-10. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29650-5

Roa-Díaz, Z. M., Asllanaj, E., Amin, H. A., Rojas, L. Z., Nano, J., Ikram, M. A., . . . Muka, T. (2021). Age at natural menopause and blood pressure traits: Mendelian randomization study. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(19), 1-13. doi:10.3390/jcm10194299

Jiang, X., Gao, H., Elliott, P., & Pazoki, R. (2022). Percentage of explained variance in alcohol consumption by genetic risk score in the UK Biobank. In EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS Vol. 30 (pp. 528-529). Online. doi:10.1038/s41431-021-01026-1

Evangelou, E., Suzuki, H., Bai, W., Pazoki, R., Gao, H., Matthews, P. M., & Elliott, P. (2021). Alcohol consumption in the general population is associated with structural changes in multiple organ systems. eLife, 10. doi:10.7554/eLife.65325

Pazoki, R., Vujkovic, M., Elliott, J., Evangelou, E., Gill, D., Mohsen, G., . . . elliott, P. (2021). Genetic analysis in European ancestry individuals identifies 517 loci associated with liver enzymes. Nature Communications, 12, 1-12. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22338-2

Pazoki, R., Lin, B. D., van Eijk, K. R., Schijven, D., de Zwarte, S., Guloksuz, S., & Luykx, J. J. (2020). Phenome-wide and genome-wide analyses of quality of life in schizophrenia. BJPsych Open, 7(1), 1-7. doi:10.1192/bjo.2020.140

Cabrera, C. P., Pazoki, R., Giri, A., Hellwege, J. N., Evangelou, E., Ramirez, J., . . . Warren, H. R. (2020). Multi-trait genome-wide association analysis of blood pressure identifies 45 additional loci. In EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN GENETICS Vol. 28 (pp. 105). Virtual Conference. doi:10.1038/s41431-020-00740-6

Elliott, P., Muller, D. C., Schneider-Luftman, D., Pazoki, R., Evangelou, E., Dehghan, A., . . . Tzoulaki, I. (2020). Estimated 24-Hour Urinary Sodium Excretion and Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality among 398628 Individuals in UK Biobank. Hypertension, 76(3), 683-691. doi:10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14302

Robinson, O., Chadeau Hyam, M., Karaman, I., Climaco Pinto, R., Ala-Korpela, M., Handakas, E., . . . Vineis, P. (2020). Determinants of accelerated metabolomic and epigenetic aging in a UK cohort. Aging Cell, 19(6), 1-13. doi:10.1111/acel.13149

Schmidt, A. F., Holmes, M. V., Preiss, D., Swerdlow, D. I., Denaxas, S., Fatemifar, G., . . . Dehghan, A. (2019). Phenome-wide association analysis of LDL-cholesterol lowering genetic variants in PCSK9. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 19(1). doi:10.1186/s12872-019-1187-z

Pazoki, R., Lin, B. D., van Eijk, K. R., Schijven, D., Guloksuz, S., & Luykx, J. J. (2019). Phenome-wide and Genome-wide Analyses of Quality of Life in Schizophrenia. bioRxiv, preprint. doi:10.1101/744045

Pazoki, R., Evangelou, E., Mosen-Ansorena, D., Pinto, R., Karaman, I., Blakeley, P., . . . Dehghan, A. (2019). PATHWAYS UNDERLYING URINARY SODIUM AND POTASSIUM EXCRETION AND THE LINK TO BLOOD PRESSURE AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE. In Journal of Hypertension Vol. 37 (pp. e74). Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). doi:10.1097/01.hjh.0000571108.82708.c0

Pazoki, R., Evangelou, E., Mosen-Ansorena, D., Pinto, R. C., Karaman, I., Blakeley, P., . . . Dehghan, A. (2019). GWAS for urinary sodium and potassium excretion highlights pathways shared with cardiovascular traits. Nature Communications, 10(1), 1-11. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11451-y

Evangelou, E., Gao, H., Chu, C., Ntritsos, G., Blakeley, P., Butts, A. R., . . . Elliott, P. (2019). New alcohol-related genes suggest shared genetic mechanisms with neuropsychiatric disorders. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(9), 950-961. doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0653-z

Luykx, J., Pazoki, R., Lin, B., Guloksuz, S., Schijven, D., van Eijk, K., & GROUP collaborators. (2019). T168. Phenome-Wide and Genome-Wide Analyses of Quality of Life in Patients With Psychosis. In Biological Psychiatry Vol. 85 (pp. S194). Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.03.491

Pazoki, R. (2019). Cardiovascular disease, ABO locus, and markers of platelet functionality. International Journal of Cardiology, 286(1 July 2019), 162-163. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2019.03.061

De Vries, P. S., Brown, M. R., Bentley, A. R., Sung, Y. J., Winkler, T. W., Ntalla, I., . . . Giulianini, F. (2019). Multiancestry Genome-Wide Association Study of Lipid Levels Incorporating Gene-Alcohol Interactions. American Journal of Epidemiology, 188(6), 1033-1054. doi:10.1093/aje/kwz005

Robinson, O., Hyam, M. C., Karaman, I., Pinto, R. C., Fiorito, G., Gao, H., . . . Vineis, P. (2018). Determinants of accelerated metabolomic and epigenetic ageing in a UK cohort. bioRxiv, preprint. doi:10.1101/411603

Kilpeläinen, T. O., Bentley, A. R., Noordam, R., Sung, Y. J., Schwander, K., Winkler, T. W., . . . Krieger, J. E. (2019). Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity. Nature Communications, 10(1). doi:10.1038/s41467-018-08008-w

Ashar, F. N., Mitchell, R. N., Albert, C. M., Newton-Cheh, C., Brody, J. A., Müller-Nurasyid, M., . . . Sotoodehnia, N. (2018). A comprehensive evaluation of the genetic architecture of sudden cardiac arrest. European Heart Journal, 39(44), 3961-3969. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehy474

Evangelou, E., Warren, H. R., Mosen-Ansorena, D., Mifsud, B., Pazoki, R., Gao, H., . . . Gandin, I. (2018). Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits. Nature Genetics, 50(10), 1412-1425. doi:10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x

Davies, G., Lam, M., Harris, S. E., Trampush, J. W., Luciano, M., Hill, W. D., . . . Kleineidam, L. (2018). Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function. Nature Communications, 9(1). doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04362-x

Pazoki, R., Dehghan, A., Evangelou, E., Warren, H., Gao, H., Caulfield, M., . . . Tzoulaki, I. (2018). Genetic predisposition to high blood pressure and lifestyle factors: Associations with midlife blood pressure levels and cardiovascular events. In Circulation Vol. 137 (pp. 653-661). doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.030898

Pazoki, R. (2018). Methods for polygenic traits. International journal of cardiology, 1793, 145-156. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-7868-7_10

Research Interests

(Genetic) Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Diseases

Big Data

Genome-wide Association Studies

Genetic risk scores

Mendelian Randomization

Machine Learning

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