Biomedical subjects

Peter J van der Most

Publications and source records attributed to Peter J van der Most.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2026

Robust inference and correlates from genetic associations with personality.

Personality traits describe stable differences in how people think, feel and behave, and how they interact with and experience their social and physical environments1,2. Many questions remain unanswered about associations between DNA and personality traits, such as their robustness, their generalizability and the biological and social pathways through which they act. Here we meta-analyse data across 46 cohorts comprising 611,037 to 1.14 million participants with European-like and African-like genomes for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience), and data from up to 50,725 participants for within-family GWAS. We identify 1,260 lead genetic variants associated with personality, including 824 novel variants3. Common genetic variants explain a moderate 4.8-9.3% of the variance in measures of each trait, and 9.3-13.3% among instruments with typical measurement reliability. Genetic associations with personality are highly consistent but not identical across geography, reporter (self versus close other), age group and measurement instrument, and we find minimal spousal assortment for personality in recent history. In contrast to many other social and behavioural traits4,5, within-family GWAS and polygenic index analyses indicate that genetic associations with personality are minimally confounded by the shared family environment. Polygenic prediction, genetic correlation and Mendelian randomization analyses indicate that personality traits have widespread, potentially causal associations with consequential behaviours and life outcomes. Overall, we find that the genetic architecture of personality is robustly generalizable, minimally confounded and widely relevant to human experience.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2026

Genetic determinants of childhood blood pressure and heart rate in relation to adult health outcomes: the consortium of childhood blood pressure.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To elucidate the genetic architecture of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) during early life and assess their potential relevance to adult health outcomes. METHODS: The largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses to date of childhood systolic BP, diastolic BP, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure (n = 28 425) and HR (n = 22 565) were conducted in children of European ancestry aged 4-17 years. Follow-up analyses included comparisons with adult GWAS results, polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses in independent cohorts of diverse ancestries, and a phenome-wide association study in the UK Biobank. RESULTS: Eight genome-wide significant loci were identified for childhood BP (KIAA2013, CACNB2, PLCE1, PAX2, COL4A2, RP11-236L14.1, CFDP1, TPX2) and three loci for childhood HR (CCDC141, ACHE, MYH6); all novel in children but previously reported in adults. Childhood PRSs explained up to 1.6% of BP variance and 5.2% of HR variance among children of European ancestry. Genetic correlations between childhood and adulthood BP traits were moderate (rg = 0.4-0.7), suggesting age-specific genetic effects on BP. In the UK Biobank, higher childhood BP PRS levels were significantly associated with a broad range of adult health outcomes, particularly cardiometabolic outcomes such as hypertension, angina, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular disease-related mortality. CONCLUSIONS: These findings advance the understanding of the genetic architecture of childhood BP and HR and provide compelling genetic evidence linking childhood BP to a broad spectrum of adult health outcomes-particularly cardiometabolic conditions-which may inform targeted prevention strategies from a young age.

Humans↗

PubMed2025

Genome-wide gene-sleep interaction study identifies novel lipid loci in 732,564 participants.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Deviations from the population mean in sleep duration have been associated with increased risk for developing dyslipidemia and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, but the mechanism of effect is poorly characterized. We performed large-scale genome-wide gene-sleep interaction analyses of lipid levels to identify genetic variants underpinning the biomolecular pathways of sleep-associated lipid disturbances and to suggest possible druggable targets. METHODS: We collected data from 55 cohorts with a combined sample size of 732,564 participants (87 % European ancestry) with data on lipid traits (high-density lipoprotein [HDL-c] and low-density lipoprotein [LDL-c] cholesterol and triglycerides [TG]). Short (STST) and long (LTST) total sleep time were defined by the extreme 20 % of the age- and sex-standardized values within each cohort. Based on cohort-level summary statistics data, we performed meta-analyses for one-degree of freedom tests of interaction and two-degree of freedom joint tests of the SNP-main and -interaction effect on lipid levels. RESULTS: The one-degree of freedom variant-sleep interaction test identified 10 novel loci (Pint<5.0e-9), and we additionally identify 7 loci within the two-degree of freedom analyses (Pjoint<5.0e-9 in combination with Pint<6.6e-6). Multiple loci, including those mapped to APSH (target for aspartic and succinic acid) and SLC8A1 showed biological plausibility and druggability potential based on literature. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, the 17 (9 with short and 8 with long sleep) loci provided evidence into the biomolecular mechanisms underlying sleep-associated lipid changes, including potential involvement of the vitamin D receptor pathway. Collectively, these findings may contribute developing novel interventions for treating dyslipidemia in people with sleep disturbances.

Humans↗