Laura Raffield Assistant Professor in Genetics

PhD, Wake Forest University

Research interests: genetic epidemiology, human genetics, genome-wide association studies, precision medicine, multi-omics, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, hematological traits

School of Medicine Profile | Orcid profile | LinkedIn

Reagan Ballard Undergraduate student

BS in Biology (minor in Data Science), UNC-Chapel Hill, 2026

Research interests: social determinants of health, multi-omics association studies, epigenetics

Emily Drzymalla Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Epidemiology

PhD in Epidemiology in progress | MPH in Epidemiology

Research interests: the association of genetic and environmental factors in risk for mental illness, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiomics

Co-mentored by Christy Avery

Madeline Greer Gillman Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in progress | BA in Biology, Occidental College

Research interests: Proteomic and metabolomic QTLs, social determinants of health.

Le Huang Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in progress | M.E. in Computer Science, Nankai University, Tianjin China | B.E. in Computer Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan China

Research interests: Metabolite wide association study, Phenome-wide association study, Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Biological databases and web servers.

Google Scholar | Personal Website | Github

Co-mentored by Yun Li

Micah Reed Hysong Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Genetics and Molecular Biology (GMB)

PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology in progress, UNC – Chapel Hill | B.S. in Biochemistry, North Carolina State University | B.S. in Genetics, North Carolina State University

Research interests: (Multi)-omics association studies, improving polygenic risk scores in diverse populations

Daeeun Kim Post-doc Research Associate

PhD in Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC-Chapel Hill | MPH in Public Health Sciences, Seoul National University | BS in Biological Sciences in Seoul National University

Research interests: Genomics and epidemiology of complex traits in diverse populations, Polygenic risk scores for cardiovascular diseases, Multi-omics approaches

Jayna Nicholas Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Genetics and Molecular Biology (GMB)

PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology in progress, UNC – Chapel Hill | B.S. in Biochemistry, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Research interests: Incorporating multi-omics platforms (genomics, metabolomics, and proteomics) to better understand cardiovascular disease pathogenesis at an individual level

Co-mentored by Karen Mohlke

Keshav Ramesh Undergraduate student

BS Biology, Minor in Statistics and Chemistry

Research interests: Social determinants of health, proteomics, epigenetics

Bjoernar Tuftin Research Associate, Genetics

MS Computer Science (1999), Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Research interests: statistical programming and simulations, efficient workflows, r, python, java, c ++

Shelby Wray Undergraduate Student Biology and Computer Science

Double major BS in Quantitative Biology and BA in Computer Science, UNC – Chapel Hill, 2026

Research interests: epigenetics, multi-omics association studies incorporating environmental factors, and statistical programming

Katherine Xing Undergraduate student biostatistics

B.S.P.H Biostatistics, Mathematics and Data Science minors, UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health

Research interests: Precision medicine, epigenetics, machine learning

Lab alumni

Information in this section reflects the individuals’ information when they were in the lab. For up to date information on Alumni see their personal profiles if link is available.

Lab alumni – 2023

Aylin Memili Research Specialist

MPH in Applied Epidemiology, UNC-Chapel Hill | BSPH (Nutrition) UNC – Chapel Hill

Research interests: Prenatal genetics, cardiovascular disease epidemiology, epigenetics

Sara O’Brien Undergraduate Student Biostatistics

BSPH in Biostatistics, UNC – Chapel Hill, 2023 | BA in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures, UNC – Chapel Hill, 2023

Research interests: (Multi)-omics association studies, social determinants of health

Laura Zhou Postdoctoral fellow

PhD in Biostatistics, UNC – Chapel Hill | MS in Biostatistics, UNC – Chapel Hill

Research interests: Method development for constructing polygenic risk scores in diverse populations

Co-mentored by Yun Li

Lab alumni – 2022

LáShauntá Glover Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Epidemiology

PhD in Epidemiology in progress | MS Health Promotion, 2015, University of Mississippi | BA Biological Science and Psychology, 2013, University of Mississippi

Research interests: Social determinants of Cardiovascular Disease, Social Epigenetics, Social-OMICs

Primary mentor: Kari North

LinkedIn | ResearchGate | Bibliography | Google Scholar

Sarthi Patil Undergraduate Student Biostatistics

BS in Biostatistics (minor in Neuroscience), UNC – Chapel Hill, 2023

Research interests: Cardiovascular Health, TWAS

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