The Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) team, led by Professor Timothy Hinks, has received £98,000 from the national charity Asthma + Lung UK to analyse data that may shed light on why more women than men have asthma, why they experience significantly higher numbers of asthma attacks and why they are more likely to end up in hospital as a result.
NDM Bioinformatician Dr Emanuele Marchi said: “This aspect of asthma – which disproportionately affects the life of women – has not been adequately studied, so we do not understand the biological factors that cause asthma to affect women differently. If we can understand this, we can look towards developing new treatments and a more personalised approach.”
The study team is supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).