Rob's research focusses on understanding the genetic basis of complex human phenotypes, with a particular focus on developmental phenotypes. He applies his mathematical, statistical and data skills to develop statistical pipelines and novel methods to increase our understanding of how the interplay between maternal and fetal genotype contribute to fetal development. The correlation between parental and offspring genotypes means that traditional statistical methods for association testing in genetic association studies can lead to spurious associations if the correlation is not accounted for.
Rob has developed novel statistical methods to account for this correlation using large scale association studies, leading to novel insights into the role of the placenta in pregnancy complications. He is currently applying his skills to develop techniques for identifying genomic regions where rare genetic variation is associated with complex phenotypes using whole genome sequence data with a focus on developmental phenotypes.