Dr. Bailey-Wilson is the Acting Chief of the Section of Statistical Genetics in the Inherited Disease Research Branch. The purpose of this section is to perform research in both theoretical and applied statistical genetics as applied to human traits and diseases.
Special emphasis is placed on the study of complex diseases such as the human cancers.
One major effort in the section is the study of the possible role of inherited susceptibility alleles in the causation of lung cancer. Previous studies have suggested that one or more major susceptibility loci may exist with alleles that act in conjunction with smoking behavior and other environmental risk factors to increase lung cancer risk. Dr. Bailey-Wilson is currently involved in a linkage study of lung cancer in southern Louisiana families. This project is in the data collection stage so results are not likely to be available for several years. Another major project, carried out in collaboration with the laboratories of Dr. Jeffrey Trent and Dr. Francis Collins, is the search for genes conferring inherited susceptibility to prostate cancer.