Furniss Group | Genetics and Epidemiology of Common Hand Conditions

Botnar

The work of our group strives to understand the genetic and non-genetic factors that predispose people to common hand conditions, in particular Dupuytren's Disease and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, with the aim of developing better treatments in the future.

Conditions of the hand have a major influence on the function of the whole individual. As a practicing hand surgeon, Dominic sees these effects every day in his patients driving his group's research to find solutions which improve his patients' lives, and that of so many others affected by these diseases.

Context

The hand is one of the most important parts of the musculoskeletal system. It is commonly how we sense and interact with our environment, and forms a pivotal place in our social exchanges.

When the hand is affected by disease or trauma, it has a profound impact on the overall function of the individual.

Surgery and other treatments for common hand surgery conditions consume large amounts of NHS resources, and have a much larger cost to society as a whole.

Most hand diseases are caused by a combination of genetic predisposition and non-genetic ("environmental") factors.

OuR research

We aim to improve our understanding of the causes of hand conditions using a combined approach.

We investigate the genetics of large cohorts of patients and control individuals in order to define genes and variants that pre-dispose them to developing hand problems.

In addition, we try to understand the non-genetic factors that cause common hand conditions by analysing large databases of routinely collected population health information.

Finally, we are involved in a number of clinical trials within hand surgery. We expect these trials to have a rapid impact on the quality of clinical care for our patients, and the methodology will be applied to new treatments generated from our basic science research. In this way, we hope to move our work from bench to bedside.

Our team

Dominic Furniss

University Research Lecturer - Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship
Michael Ng

DPhil Student
Oliver Manley

Academic Foundation Programme Doctor
Rachel Kuo

Academic Foundation Programme Doctor
Akira Wiberg

NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Plastic Surgery
Jennifer Lane

Versus Arthritis Clinical Research Fellow in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
Justin Wormald

DPhil Musculoskeletal Sciences
Karishma Shah

DPhil student
Luke Geoghegan

Honorary Departmental Research Assistant
Rachel Howes

Honorary Departmental Clinical Research Fellow.