Yann Klimentidis, PhD: Yann received his PhD in Evolutionary Anthropology, studying genetic admixture among Hispanics and Native Americans in New Mexico. He is generally interested in human genetics, genetic epidemiology, populations genetics, and evolutionary genetics. His focus has been on the genetics of cardiometabolic disease, body composition, and type-2 diabetes. He is also very interested in physical activity in terms of how the propensity for habitual physical activity is genetically regulated, and in terms of how it may act as an effect modifier of genetic variants.
Amit Arora, MD, MPH: Amit received his MD from Dayanand Medical College, India and MPH from COPH at U of A. He has worked as a research specialist for almost 5 years at different labs. His research interests include Genetic Epidemiology, Bioinformatics and computational biology and his current research is focused on genetics of cardio-metabolic traits, T2D and pulmonary vascular disease. He is also currently pursuing his MS in Biomedical Informatics at College of Health Solutions at ASU.
Gayatri Arani, MD: Gayatri is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at MEZCOPH. She has a bachelor's in Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery from NTR University for Health Sciences and a Master's in Public Health Epidemiology from Oregon State University. She is interested in studying the causality and mechanisms of chronic diseases using cutting-edge genetic epidemiology methods and tools. Currently, she is interested in understanding the risk factors of neurodegenerative diseases. Apart from work and school, she enjoys listening to old Hindi music and practicing singing.
Past students
Michelle Newell, MS: I earned an MS in epidemiology in 2020. After earning my undergraduate degree, I worked in a genetic diagnostic lab for multiple years and decided to return to school to learn more data analysis skills. My research interests include using genetics to learn more about modifiable risk factors and causality of chronic illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and T2D.