Blog

The Davis lab at WCPG and ASHG

This year the Davis lab was well represented at both WCPG and ASHG!

Lea delivered a talk this year at WCPG on Data Access as part of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Education Day symposium. She also spoke in the session on Natural Selection and the Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders, chaired and delivered a talk in the session on Genes in the Context of the Medical Phenome. Postdoc Katya Khramtsova presented a poster on her work to characterize the sex-specific genetic architecture of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

At ASHG this year Lea presented a poster on a project to use PrediXcan analysis to prioritize genes within known penetrant copy number deletions and duplications that are associated with autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia (and won a reviewer’s choice award)! Graduate student Ky’Era Actkins presented a poster on systematic identification of health disparities using the electronic health record (EHR) at Vanderbilt. Collaborator Barbara Stranger spoke at ASHG about our study to evaluate polygenic selection of neuropsychiatric disorders. Check out this Nature Magazine write up on the project and her talk!

Of course WCPG and ASHG are also great times to catch up with collaborators and enjoy new cities!

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ASHG dinner with the Davis, Aldrich, and Capra labs!
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At WCPG talking science with my bestie, Carol Mathews!

Welcome to our new graduate student Ky’Era Actkins!

Ky’Era Actkins is joining the lab from Meharry Medical College. She is interested in understanding the genetics of complex medical conditions across populations and will be working with us in the U54 Center for Population Health and Health Disparities to characterize the contribution of genetic variation to health disparities observed in the Vanderbilt health care system. Welcome Ky’Era!