Warmest congratulations to Clare Hall PhD Student Jasmine Mack, who recently gave a presentation at the American Society of Human Genetics 2023 annual meeting in Washington D.C.

Jasmine Mack, MPH, MS, is a PhD candidate training between the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the University of Cambridge Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. She is also an American Society of Human Genetics Scholar.

Jasmine shares the following about her presentation on genetic contributions to gestational hypertension in a multi-ancestral cohort:

In the Personalized Environment and Genes Study cohort, we utilized a multi-ancestral sample and identified a novel locus associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy near the Retinoic Acid Receptor Beta Gene, which is implicated in placental development. This candidate region was validated in the UK Biobank. We demonstrate that multi-ancestral cohorts can improve power for genetic discovery when considering rarer, complex pregnancy-related phenotypes.

Jasmine earned a Masters in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, a Masters in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University School of Public Health, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology, Psychology, and Linguistics from Emory University. Jasmine’s research concerns multi-omics analysis of pregnancy complications and exploring efficient statistical methods for studying multi-ethnic and admixed populations. She is interested in studying how genetics and the environment influences cardiometabolic disorders of pregnancy, in addition to how maternal and fetal genetic effects influence pathogenesis. As a part of her commitment to service, Jasmine advocates for representation of historically excluded people as researchers as well as participants in research studies.

We look forward to hearing about Jasmine’s future endeavours!