Community & Precision Public Health Program
Precision Medicine acknowledges the intricate threads of our genetic diversity (that individuals are genetically distinct) woven into the vibrant tapestry of humanity we all share. The Mellowes Center is committed to diversifying the genomic data available for research by facilitating precision medicine studies that go deeper than genetic ancestry. With epigenomics and systems biology at the core of our expertise, integrating ethnic diversity with genome function is particularly interesting. Our commitment to diversifying genomic research focuses on community-based, genomics-informed studies integrating ethnic diversity and environmental impacts.
To explore the intersection of ancestry and historical environmental impacts on our community, which also have implications for genomic regulation, our Center seeks to develop studies informed by our community partners and focus on what matters to them. Listening to our community partners is vital to developing better means to convey the health implications of genomic differences and the epigenomics (or regulatory) modifications due to environmental conditions. This is a promising area of research where we aim to leverage the technologies we have developed to study severe and congenital diseases and reimagine them for application to more common diseases and situations affecting individuals in our community. Yet, we underscore the need for this to be a mutual partnership so that all can benefit in ways that align with their values and with consent.
For this reason, our Center has partnered with the 91ɫƵ Institute for Health and Equity (IHE) not only to develop the pioneering field of Precision Public Health (PPH), which uses better and more precise data to target disease prevention and control as well as to improve health and health equity worldwide, but also to create new careers that will support the practice of precision medicine at a larger scale that reaches more populations. These programs include Masters and certificate programs in Precision Medicine as well as a Masters program in Genetic Counseling.
Program Faculty
Zeno Franco, PhD
Associate Professor; Director, Research Training and Education
Jennifer Geurts, MS, CGC
Assistant Professor; Program Director, Master of Science in Genetic Counseling Program
Reza Shaker, MD
Assoc Provost, Sr Assoc Dean, Ctr Dir, Chief, Prof
Raul A. Urrutia, MD
Professor, Department of Surgery; Director, Linda T. and John A. Mellowes Center for Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine
Jeffrey Whittle, MD, MPH
Professor
Michael T. Zimmermann, PhD
Director, Computational Structural Genomics Unit, Linda T. and John A. Mellowes Center for Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine
Community & Precision Public Health Sample Publications
. Meurer JR, Whittle JC, Lamb KM, Kosasih MA, Dwinell MR, Urrutia RA. Am J Prev Med 2019 Aug;57(2):286-289 PMID: 31326012 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85068737878