Sharon K. Davis | |
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| Alma mater | University of Arkansas (B.A.) Northeastern University (M.Ed.) Harvard Kennedy School (M.P.A.) Brandeis University (Ph.D.) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Human social genomics |
| Institutions | National Human Genome Research Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | Stuart Altman |
Sharon K. Davis is an American social epidemiologist. She is a senior scientist and head of the Social Epidemiology Research Unit at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Davis completed a B.A. from University of Arkansas in 1980. She earned a M.Ed. from Northeastern University in 1983. In 1987, she completed a M.P.A. from John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She earned a Ph.D. from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in 1991. [1] Her dissertation was titled Assessing the effect of Medicare's Prospective Payment System on access to intensive-care treatment among the very-old: A pre/post examination of intensive-care admission patterns. Stuart Altman was her doctoral advisor. [2]
Davis is a senior scientist in the Metabolic, Cardiovascular and Inflammatory Disease Genomics Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). [3] She is head of the Social Epidemiology Research Unit. [1]
Davis' research has focused on the effects of social determinants on cardiovascular disease mortality and morbidity among disproportionately affected sub-populations. Her lab is now engaged in an emerging field of human social genomics. This research identifies the types of genes that are subject to social-environmental regulations, the neural and molecular mechanisms that mediate the effects of social processes on gene expression, and the genetic polymorphisms that moderate individual differences in genomic sensitivity to social context. [1]
Davis' lab is also assessing the association of ancestry on sub-clinical cardiovascular risk factors among African-Americans and skin color as a phenotype associated with genetic ancestry and cardiovascular outcomes. The group is measuring differential telomere length correlated to cardiovascular outcomes and social determinants on telomere length among African-Americans. [1]
Davis' team, along with other investigators in the Cardiovascular Section, have implemented a research protocol with the objective of developing a community-based cohort and novel genomic science resource for defining the biological significance of ancestry-related genomic variation in African-Americans related to cardiovascular disease. The study is designed to test the hypothesis that race-ancestry differences in the burden of cardiovascular disease in African-Americans reflects the influence of a unique interplay between the distinct genomic variations characteristic of African-Americans and the "exposome" of social determinants and environmental factors that influence the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. [1]
Davis was married and had 2 children during the completion of her dissertation in 1991. [2]
The Framingham Heart Study is a long-term, ongoing cardiovascular cohort study of residents of the city of Framingham, Massachusetts. The study began in 1948 with 5,209 adult subjects from Framingham, and is now on its third generation of participants. Prior to the study almost nothing was known about the epidemiology of hypertensive or arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Much of the now-common knowledge concerning heart disease, such as the effects of diet, exercise, and common medications such as aspirin, is based on this longitudinal study. It is a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in collaboration with Boston University. Various health professionals from the hospitals and universities of Greater Boston staff the project.
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is an institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland.
Personalized medicine, also referred to as precision medicine, is a medical model that separates people into different groups—with medical decisions, practices, interventions and/or products being tailored to the individual patient based on their predicted response or risk of disease. The terms personalized medicine, precision medicine, stratified medicine and P4 medicine are used interchangeably to describe this concept though some authors and organisations use these expressions separately to indicate particular nuances.
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint. It started in 1990 and was completed in 2003. It remains the world's largest collaborative biological project. Planning for the project started after it was adopted in 1984 by the US government, and it officially launched in 1990. It was declared complete on April 14, 2003, and included about 92% of the genome. Level "complete genome" was achieved in May 2021, with a remaining only 0.3% bases covered by potential issues. The final gapless assembly was finished in January 2022.
Race and health refers to how being identified with a specific race influences health. Race is a complex concept that has changed across chronological eras and depends on both self-identification and social recognition. In the study of race and health, scientists organize people in racial categories depending on different factors such as: phenotype, ancestry, social identity, genetic makeup and lived experience. "Race" and ethnicity often remain undifferentiated in health research.
A reference genome is a digital nucleic acid sequence database, assembled by scientists as a representative example of the set of genes in one idealized individual organism of a species. As they are assembled from the sequencing of DNA from a number of individual donors, reference genomes do not accurately represent the set of genes of any single individual organism. Instead a reference provides a haploid mosaic of different DNA sequences from each donor. For example, the most recent human reference genome is derived from >60 genomic clone libraries. There are reference genomes for multiple species of viruses, bacteria, fungus, plants, and animals. Reference genomes are typically used as a guide on which new genomes are built, enabling them to be assembled much more quickly and cheaply than the initial Human Genome Project. Reference genomes can be accessed online at several locations, using dedicated browsers such as Ensembl or UCSC Genome Browser.
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Charles Nohuoma Rotimi is the Director of the Trans-National Institutes of Health (NIH) center for research in genomics and global health. He works to ensure that population genetics include genomes from African populations and founded the African Society of Human Genetics in 2003. 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.
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Charmaine DM Royal is an American geneticist and Associate Professor at the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and the Department of African and African American Studies 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.
Human Heredity and Health in Africa, or H3Africa, is an initiative to study the genomics and medical genetics of African people. Its goals are to build the continent's research infrastructure, train researchers and clinicians, and to study questions of scientific and medical interest to Africans. The H3Africa Consortium was formally launched in 2012 in Addis Ababa and has grown to include research projects across 32 countries, a pan-contintental bioinformatics network, and the first whole genome sequencing of many African ethnolinguistic groups.
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.
Vence L. Bonham Jr., J.D. is the acting Deputy Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the U. S. National Institutes of Health, and is the leader of the NHGRI Health Disparities Unit. His research focuses on social determinants of health, particularly with regard to the social implications of new genomic knowledge and technologies.
Cuilin Zhang is a Chinese-American epidemiologist and physician-scientist researching the roles of genetic and environmental factors in the pathogenesis of gestational diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and obesity and health consequences of these complications. Zhang is a senior investigator and acting chief of the epidemiology branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Xiaohong Rose Yang is an American biomedical scientist researching the genetics of dysplastic nevus syndrome and chordoma, and etiologic heterogeneity of breast cancer. She is a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute. Yang leads breast cancer studies in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
Stephanie J. London is an American epidemiologist and physician-scientist specializing in environmental health, respiratory diseases, and genetic susceptibility. She is the deputy chief of the epidemiology branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Katrina A. Blouke Goddard is an American genetic epidemiologist and biostatistician specializing in public health genomics and the translation of genomic applications into clinical practice. Goddard is the director of the division of cancer control and population sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She was previously the distinguished investigator and director of translational and applied genomics at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University.
Adebowale A. Adeyemo is a Nigerian physician-scientist and genetic epidemiologist specialized in genomics and cardiometabolic disorders. He is the deputy director and chief scientific officer of the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This article incorporates public domain material from Courtesy: National Human Genome Research Institute. National Institutes of Health.| International | |
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| Academics | |
