People
Laura Raffield Assistant Professor in Genetics
Research interests: genetic epidemiology, human genetics, genome-wide association studies, precision medicine, multi-omics, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, hematological traits
Reagan Ballard Undergraduate student
Research interests: social determinants of health, multi-omics association studies, epigenetics
Emily Drzymalla Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student 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
Research interests: Proteomic and metabolomic QTLs, social determinants of health.
Micah Reed Hysong Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Genetics and Molecular Biology (GMB)
Research interests: (Multi)-omics association studies, improving polygenic risk scores in diverse populations
Daeeun Kim Post-doc Research Associate
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)
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
Bjoernar Tuftin Research Associate, Genetics
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
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 – 2024
Le Huang Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Student Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
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
Keshav Ramesh Undergraduate student
Research interests: Social determinants of health, proteomics, epigenetics
Katherine Xing Undergraduate student biostatistics
Research interests: Precision medicine, epigenetics, machine learning
Lab alumni – 2023
Aylin Memili Research Specialist
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
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
Research interests: Social determinants of Cardiovascular Disease, Social Epigenetics, Social-OMICs
Primary mentor: Kari North
Sarthi Patil Undergraduate Student Biostatistics
Research interests: Cardiovascular Health, TWAS