Janina Jeff | |
---|---|
Alma mater | Spelman College (BS) Vanderbilt University (MS, PhD) |
Awards | ASHG Advocacy Award American Society of Human Genetics (2020) Sound Up Bootcamp Spotify (2018) |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Illumina, Inc. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Vanderbilt University |
Thesis | The Genetics of Quantitative Traits Associated with Cardiovascular Disease in African Americans (2012) |
Website | In Those Genes Podcast website |
Janina M. Jeff (juh-NEE-nuh; born September 10, 1985) is a US-based geneticist and a senior scientist at Illumina. She is specifically interested in identifying genetic variants that explain disease disparities across populations, as well as science communication. She was the first African American to earn a PhD in Human Genetics at Vanderbilt University.
Jeff is the host and executive producer of In Those Genes, a podcast show that links genetics, African American identity, and Black culture. Jeff is a 2020 American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Advocacy Award winner and won the inaugural Spotify Sound-Up Bootcamp in 2018. [1]
In the podcast, Jeff refers to herself as a geneti-“SIS" and a storyteller. Jeff engages her listeners with personal stories and her scientific knowledge. Growing up, Jeff relates that she "asked big questions, set her own course, connected with her community, and then founded work that fit her." [2]
In her younger years she questioned everything and when she didn't know the answer she saw it as a hindrance and now views it as an opportunity. Jeff discusses the ways in which human genome can provide data ultimately- develops treatments for diseases. [3] She focuses on communities that are underrepresented in genetics research, specifically, African American communities. [4]
Jeff grew up in New Orleans, attended McDonogh 35 Senior High School, [5] and graduated from Spelman College in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in Biology. At Spelman she was a RISE (Research Initiative for Science Enhancement) Scholar. [6] She earned a master's degree in applied statistics in 2011, and a Doctorate in human genetics from Vanderbilt University in 2012. [6] [7] She was the first African-American to graduate from Vanderbilt University with a Ph.D. in Human Genetics. [5] She had her postgraduate training at the Center for Human Genetic Research at Vanderbilt University, and also at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. [5]
Jeff is a Senior Bioinformatics scientist at Illumina where she develops genomic pipelines used in population screening. [6] [8] Her academic research career has focused on population genetics, with an emphasis on admixed populations and genetic risk factors of common diseases. [9]
In Those Genes is a hip-hop inspired podcast. Jeff is the host and executive producer of the podcast, which explores genetics and "the lost identities of African descended Americans through the lens of Black Culture." [10] The lead producer is Sam Ridell, creative director is Chris Diggins, the music and audio engineer is Chad Milner, sociologist is Saida Grundy, and the consultant is Stevan Smith.[ citation needed ]
In 2018, Jeff won the inaugural Spotify Sound Up Bootcamp [1] which awarded her with $10,000 to start her podcast. Episode 3, "Skinfolk, Kinfolk," was listed by IndieWire] as one of the 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2020. The episode "Dat Rona," featuring guest medical expert, Ashira Blazer, received the 2020 Radio Impact award in the Third Coast/ Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.
In the podcast, Jeff uses genetics to decode and uncover the lost histories and futures of African-descended Americans. For example, in season 2 of the podcast, the episode "She Get It From Her Moma" explored the origin of long-held beliefs about inheritance within the Black community.
Jeff is partnered with kinkofa (KIN*koh*fah): go get yo' kin as a way for African Americans to discover their Black family history. The founders, Jourdan Brunson and Tameshia Rudd-Ridge, were inspired by the ancient Adinkra proverb 'sankofa' of the Akan people who reside in present-day Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The term sankofa encourages individuals to learn from their history and heritage in order to move forward. [11]
kinkofa is a digital family history platform designed to African Americans and other peoples of African descent an opportunity to preserve their African history by uncovering, documenting, and preserving their unique origin stories. kinkofa is partnered with other public and private organizations to amplify stories that honor and enhance the public's understanding of African Americans' contributions to history. [12]
kinkofa has other resources, such as the Rememory platform and the Black cemeteries app. Rememory is a free recording platform to manage all family stories in one place. The recordings could be in person or remote, and the historians available assist in helping spark meaningful conversations. Once a family story, trajectory, recipe, or more is recorded, it is saved in a cloud-based database for generations of family members to watch. The Black cemeteries app helps African Americans share historic burial grounds. Such burial grounds have been historically neglected, leaving descendants unable to locate the final resting places of their ancestors. Cemeteries provide essential genealogical information needed to trace family origins, and not preserving them poses a threat.
Mary-Claire King is an American geneticist. She was the first to show that breast cancer can be inherited due to mutations in the gene she called BRCA1. She studies human genetics and is particularly interested in genetic heterogeneity and complex traits. She studies the interaction of genetics and environmental influences and their effects on human conditions such as breast and ovarian cancer, inherited deafness, schizophrenia, HIV, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. She has been the American Cancer Society Professor of the Department of Genome Sciences and of Medical Genetics in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington since 1995.
Dame Kay Elizabeth Davies is a British geneticist. She is Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. She is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) functional genetics unit, a governor of the Wellcome Trust, a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function, and a patron and Senior Member of Oxford University Scientific Society. Her research group has an international reputation for work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In the 1980s, she developed a test which allowed for the screening of foetuses whose mothers have a high risk of carrying DMD.
David Haussler is an American bioinformatician known for his work leading the team that assembled the first human genome sequence in the race to complete the Human Genome Project and subsequently for comparative genome analysis that deepens understanding the molecular function and evolution of the genome.
The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), founded in 1948, is a professional membership organization for specialists in human genetics. As of 2009, the organization had approximately 8,000 members. The society's members include researchers, academicians, clinicians, laboratory practice professionals, genetic counselors, nurses, and others who have a special interest in the field of human genetics.
Stylianos E. Antonarakis is a Greece-born human geneticist.
Marylyn D. Ritchie is a Professor of Genetics, the Director of the Center for Translational Bioinformatics, the Associate Director for Bioinformatics in the Institute for Biomedical Informatics, and the Associate Director of the Center for Precision Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.
Katherine Belov is an Australian geneticist, professor of comparative genomics in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Pro Vice Chancellor of Global Engagement at the University of Sydney. She is head of the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group and research expert in the area of comparative genomics and immunogenetics, including Tasmanian devils and koalas, two iconic Australian species that are threatened by disease processes. Throughout her career, she has disproved the idea that marsupial immune system is primitive, characterized the South American gray short-tailed opossum's immune genes, participated in the Platypus Genome Project, led research identifying the properties of platypus venom, and identified the cause of the spread of the Tasmanian devil's contagious cancer.
Mark Joseph Daly is Director of the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki, a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Analytic and Translational Genetic Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. In the early days of the Human Genome Project, Daly helped develop the genetic model by which linkage disequilibrium could be used to map the haplotype structure of the human genome. In addition, he developed statistical methods to find associations between genes and disorders such as Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, autism and schizophrenia.
Who We Are and How We Got Here is a 2018 book on the contribution of genome-wide ancient DNA research to human population genetics by the geneticist David Reich. He describes discoveries made by his group and others, based on analysis and comparison of ancient and modern DNA from human populations around the world. Central to these is the finding that almost all human populations are mixtures resulting from multiple population migrations and gene flow.
Sekar Kathiresan is chief executive officer and co-founder of Verve Therapeutics. Verve is pioneering a new approach to the care of cardiovascular disease by developing single-course gene-editing therapies that safely and durably lower plasma LDL cholesterol in order to treat atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Sarah Anne Tishkoff is an American geneticist and the David and Lyn Silfen Professor in the Department of Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. She also serves as a director for the American Society of Human Genetics and is an associate editor at PLOS Genetics, G3, and Genome Research. She is also a member of the scientific advisory board at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Stacey B. Gabriel is an American geneticist and Senior Director of the Genomics Platform at the Broad Institute. With Eric Lander, she is also the co-director of the National Human Genome Research Institute's sequencing center at the Broad Institute. She was named the "hottest researcher" on Thomson Reuters' list of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds in 2014. She was given this honor because she published twenty-three of the most cited papers of 2013, more than any other single researcher recorded by Thomson Reuters. She topped the same list again in 2015. She is also an ISI Highly Cited Researcher.
Dr. Krystal Tsosie (Diné) is a Navajo geneticist and bioethicist at Arizona State University and activist for Indigenous data sovereignty. She is also an educator and an expert on genetic and social identities. Her advocacy and academic work in ameliorating disparities in genetics through community-based participatory research has been covered by various national news sources, including The New York Times, Nova, The Washington Post, NPR, The Atlantic, Forbes, and The Boston Globe.
Charles Nohuoma Rotimi is the Scientific Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). He joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2008 as the inaugural Director of the Trans-NIH Center for Research in Genomics and Global Health and was also the chief of the NHGRI's Metabolic, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Disease Genomics Branch. He works to ensure that population genetics include genomes from African populations and founded the African Society of Human Genetics in 2003 and was elected its first president. Rotimi was instrumental in the launch of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) with the NIH and the Wellcome Trust. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018.
Muin Joseph Khoury is an American geneticist and epidemiologist who conducts research in the field of public health genomics. He is the founding director of the Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1997. He has also been a senior advisor in public health genomics at the National Cancer Institute since 2007.
Charmaine DM Royal is a Jamaican-American geneticist and is the Robert O. Keohane Professor of African & African American Studies, Biology, Global Health, and Family Medicine & Community Health at Duke University. She studies the intersections of race, ethnicity, ancestry genetics, and health, especially as they pertain to historically marginalized and underrepresented groups in genetic and genomic research; and genomics and global health. Her major interest is in addressing root causes and implementing sustainable solutions regarding problems of race and racism in research, healthcare, and society. Royal is a Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Independent Expert Committee (IEC) member appointed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is a 2020 Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa.
Neil Hanchard is a Jamaican physician and scientist who is clinical investigator in the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), where he leads the Childhood Complex Disease Genomics section. Prior to joining NHGRI, he was an associate professor of molecular and human genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics,. Hanchard's research focuses on the genetics of childhood disease, with an emphasis on diseases impacting global health.
Cecilia Margareta Lindgren is a Swedish geneticist. She is a Professor of Genomic Endocrinology & Metabolism in the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, where she is also Group Head at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics and a research fellow at St. Anne's College. She became Director of the Big Data Institute at Oxford on 1 April 2021; she had previously been a Senior Group Leader at the Institute. Lindgren is best known for her research on the genetics of obesity and other complex traits.
Wylie Burke is a Professor Emerita and former Chair of the Department of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington and a founding co-director of the Northwest-Alaska Pharmacogenomics Research Network, which partners with underserved populations in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
Elaine H. Zackai is a Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Clinical Genetics, and the Director of the Clinical Genetics Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).