COMPLEX TRAIT GENOMICS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Medical Student / Davis Lab / Vanderbilt University
Job Titles:
- Student / Davis Lab / Cox Lab
Annika is a Human Genetics PhD student at Vanderbilt University. She is co-mentored by Lea Davis and Nancy Cox. Annika is interested in metabolic disease, especially in shared genetic architecture between related traits, like diabetes and chronic kidney disease and between inflammatory conditions and pain.
Chloe Cevan is a Genetic Counseling Candidate in her second year of the Vanderbilt University Genetic Counseling program. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 2021 with her Bachelor's of Science in Biology: Genetics and Biotechnology, where she spent two years investigating genetic contributions to cardiac arrhythmias in the London Lab. Her research interests include community-engagement frameworks and exploring the interface of genomics and LGBTQIA2S+ advocacy.
Clare worked with Dr. Davis in Chicago as a high school student. While in the lab, she studied the genetic architecture of Tourette Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She graduated from MIT in 2020 and is now pursuing graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
Job Titles:
- Senior Project Manager / Davis Lab / Department of Medicine / Division of Genetic Medicine
Before joining the Davis Lab, Don worked at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center's Innovative Translational Research Shared Resource. Prior to coming to Nashville, he was at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he investigated the molecular evolution of domesticated transposons in mammalian genomes. At the Davis Lab, he provides support on multiple projects and facilitates day to day lab administration.
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Intern, 2018 - 2020 / Davis Lab
Donovan joined the Davisn Lab in 2018. He studied Biochemistry and Computer Science, with the intention of pursuing graduate school to impact the field of computational genetics. Furthermore, he is a member of the upcoming Vanderbilt band "Karen The Computer", Vandy recording studio, and a few different volunteering organizations on campus. He enjoys cooking, playing bass, and finding interesting new music.
Evan joined the Davis and Stranger labs during an undergraduate summer research experience at the University of Chicago and enjoyed his project so much that he has continued to work on it from his home institution of WashU! His work examined evidence of selection across nine neuropsychiatric traits. Evan is now a medical student at Harvard Medical School.
Job Titles:
- High School Student Intern / Davis Lab / Vanderbilt University
Genevieve joined the Davis lab in January 2020, while she was a student at MLK High School and the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt. In the Davis Lab, Genevieve interned under Ms. Ky'era Actkins on a project about genetic correlations between Body Mass Index and PCOS in both European and African American populations. She hopes to continue computational biology in the future in order to expand the understanding and treatment of health issues in underrepresented communities. In Fall 2021, she began her undergraduate studies at Duke University.
Job Titles:
- Resident Physician / Davis Lab / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences / Vanderbilt University
India is a research track psychiatry resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She graduated from the Vanderbilt's Medical Scientist Training Program in 2018 after completing a Ph.D. in neuroscience and her medical doctorate. She joined the lab in 2020 and is interested in better understanding the genetic and environmental precursors to externalizing disorders that may help define specific genotypic and phenotypic subtypes.
Job Titles:
- Statistical Genetic Analyst / Davis Lab / Edwards Lab / Vanderbilt University
Dr. Dennis started her postdoctoral fellowship in the Cox Lab in 2016. A genetic epidemiologist by training, she is interested in the application of epidemiological methods to biobank data. She is exploring the use of longitudinal data in electronic medical records (e.g., repeated lab values) as biomarkers of disease progression and its integration with genetic data. She is especially interested in neurological phenotypes. Before coming to Vanderbilt, Jessica completed her doctoral training at the University of Toronto, where she was a fellow in the interdisciplinary CIHR-STAGE program (Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategic Training for Advanced Genetic Epidemiology). Dr. Dennis now has her own research group at the University of British Columbia.
Job Titles:
- Student, Graduated May 2022 / Davis Lab
Julia was a Human Genetics PhD student at Vanderbilt University. She graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in biochemistry and joined the Davis lab in 2018 through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. She used genetic models to understand onset, severity, and pharmacogenetics of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Job Titles:
- Student / Davis Lab / Aldrich Lab
Kimberlyn (Kim) is a Ph.D. student in the Human Genetics Training Program. She graduated from Spelman College in 2019 with a degree in biology and afterwards spent a year at Brown doing neonatal pulmonology research. She joined the lab in 2021 as a co-mentored student of both Lea Davis and Melinda Aldrich. Kim's research interests include gene-environment interactions, psychosocial determinants, minority health, and health disparities. In another life, Kim would own an apothecary shop and be a Pilates instructor.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor / Department of Medicine / Division of Genetic Medicine
Lindsay is a human genetics student at Vanderbilt University. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Biochemistry and joined the lab in 2020. She is interested in studying links between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and mental health. She also hopes to use genetic modelling to find precursors of IBD.
Job Titles:
- Davis Lab in 2018 As a Visiting Research Fellow
- Research Instructor / Davis Lab / Department of Medicine / Division of Genetic Medicine
Maria joined the Davis Lab in 2018 as a Visiting Research Fellow, thanks to a four-year Sir Henry Wellcome Post-Doctoral Fellowship, and now works as a Research Instructor. Maria received a B.Sc in Psychology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), an M.Sc. in Neuropsychology from the University of Bristol (UK), and a Ph.D in Psychology from Cardiff University (UK). The aims of her research are to establish the etiological mechanisms underlying risk for major neuropsychiatric disorders. Maria is especially interested in how the interaction of multiple genetic and environmental factors can contribute to the development of psychiatric symptomatology, using data from the Electronic Health Records and large biobanks.
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Research Assistant / Davis Lab / Department of Medicine Division of Genetic Medicine / Vanderbilt University
Oksana worked in the Davis lab as an Undergraduate at Vanderbilt. Her work focused on identifying kids with autism spectrum disorders using electronic health record data. She is now a teacher working with kids with autism in Ecuador.
Job Titles:
- Application Developer / Davis Lab / Cox Lab / Department of Medicine / Division of Genetic Medicine
Peter previously worked at Vanderbilt's Center for Human Genetics Research (CHGR) as a database developer and analyst in Will Bush's lab. Later, he worked in Bing Zhang's proteogenomics lab in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. Now, Peter has returned to his old CHGR stomping grounds, now the Va nderbilt Genetics Institute, as a developer/analyst in the Davis and Cox labs.
Job Titles:
- Student / Davis Lab / Aldrich Lab
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student / University of Michigan
Vasa worked with Drs. Cox and Davis on methods for the analysis of exome sequence data at The University of Chicago. He then went on to earn a Masters degree in Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan. He is now working with Dr. Stephan Ripke as a Research Scientist at the Berlin Institute of Health.