Projects by Researcher

Scientific Questions Being Studied

We are interested in exploring how sleep measured by Fit-bit data (objective measure) as daily behavior is associated with psychiatric traits (both questionnaire based and EHR based traits) on a phenotypic level. Meanwhile, we would also alike to explore from a genetic perspective and check if the genetic liability differs in different populations.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

Trans-ethnic genetic analysis can inform the discovery of trait- or disease-associated loci and characterize both shared and unique genetic architectures across populations. Unlike most existing biobank studies, the All of Us Research Program provides unique and valuable resources, notably its large genetic samples collected from participants having diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. In the present study, we propose to use those diverse genetic samples to characterize genetic underpinnings that are potentially unique and/or shared across populations. We expect the findings from our trans-ethnic genetic investigation would improve the delivery of precision healthcare by facilitating personalized approaches to prevent and treat psychopathology in real-world clinical settings.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

Previous studies have reported substantial variations in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and the distributions of social determinants of mental health outcomes. However, it remains unknown if we would observe similar patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are interested in exploring social determinants of health that are known to vary substantially across the geographic regions in the United States and examining their relationship with mental health outcomes during the pandemic.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

Our team has been collaborating with ELSA UK and ELSA Brazil cohorts through the International Hundred K+ Cohort Consortium to examine the mental health consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. As the site based in the U.S., we decided to use data from the All of Us Research Program as they reflect the remarkable diversity of the U.S. population and provide a unique opportunity to explore risk/protective factors that shape the mental health impact of the pandemic across various sociodemographic contexts.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

We will explore the social determinants of health (e.g. social support, neighborhood cohesion, loneliness, housing security, etc.) and their impact on mental disorders such as depression and anxiety by utilizing the survey and EHR data within the All of Us cohort.

Some questions of interest are:

1) Are the determinants associated with risk or protection for mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety?
2) How do the associations look like for different demographics including:
Age, sex assigned at birth, race and ethnicity, residence (urban, suburban, rural), sexual orientation, income, and education.

In the midst of a mental health crisis, accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to find risk and protective factors for mental illnesses in diverse populations. We hope this study will help elucidate this much-needed topic.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

The primary aim of this research is to analyze the role of green spaces in influencing physical and psychological well-being (e.g., cardiovascular disease, depression, quality of life, psychological resilience) within a diverse cohort of the All of Us Research Program. Additionally, we aim to explore potential effect modifiers, including age, sex at birth, self-reported race and ethnicity, and neighborhood socioeconomic status, in shaping these relationships. In the present study, we hypothesize that higher levels of greenness in the neighborhood would be associated with better physical and psychological outcomes. In addition, we hypothesize that higher greenness would be more beneficial in certain contexts defined by age, sex assigned at birth, self-reported race and ethnicity, and neighborhood socioeconomic status.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

Our team has been collaborating with ELSA UK and ELSA Brazil cohorts through the International Hundred K+ Cohort Consortium to examine the mental health consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. As the site based in the U.S., we decided to use data from the All of Us Research Program as they reflect the remarkable diversity of the U.S. population and provide a unique opportunity to explore risk/protective factors that shape the mental health impact of the pandemic across various sociodemographic contexts.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

Our team has been collaborating with ELSA UK and ELSA Brazil cohorts through the International Hundred K+ Cohort Consortium to examine the mental health consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. As the site based in the U.S., we decided to use data from the All of Us Research Program as they reflect the remarkable diversity of the U.S. population and provide a unique opportunity to explore risk/protective factors that shape the mental health impact of the pandemic across various sociodemographic contexts.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

Our team has been collaborating with ELSA UK and ELSA Brazil cohorts through the International Hundred K+ Cohort Consortium to examine the mental health consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. As the site based in the U.S., we decided to use data from the All of Us Research Program as they reflect the remarkable diversity of the U.S. population and provide a unique opportunity to explore risk/protective factors that shape the mental health impact of the pandemic across various sociodemographic contexts.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

Trans-ethnic genetic analysis can inform the discovery of trait- or disease-associated loci and characterize both shared and unique genetic architectures across populations. Unlike most existing biobank studies, the All of Us Research Program provides unique and valuable resources, notably its large genetic samples collected from participants having diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. In the present study, we propose to use those diverse genetic samples to characterize genetic underpinnings that are potentially unique and/or shared across populations. We expect the findings from our trans-ethnic genetic investigation would improve the delivery of precision healthcare by facilitating personalized approaches to prevent and treat psychopathology in real-world clinical settings.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

We are interested in examining the genetic underpinnings of potential participation bias in this volunteer-based sample.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

We are interested in examining the genetic underpinnings of potential participation bias in this volunteer-based sample.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

We will explore the social determinants of health (e.g. social support, neighborhood cohesion, loneliness, housing security, etc.) and their impact on mental disorders such as depression and anxiety by utilizing the survey and EHR data within the All of Us cohort.

Some questions of interest are:

1) Are the determinants associated with risk or protection for mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety?
2) How do the associations look like for different demographics including:
Age, sex assigned at birth, race and ethnicity, residence (urban, suburban, rural), sexual orientation, income, and education.

In the midst of a mental health crisis, accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to find risk and protective factors for mental illnesses in diverse populations. We hope this study will help elucidate this much-needed topic.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

There is a rapidly growing body of literature--both national and international--reporting increased incidence of mental health conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, most of the risk and protective factors reported by recent COVID studies are known predictors of major psychiatric conditions. Further, most prior studies focus on the association of one risk factor with mental health risk at a time using linear models and do not examine multiple risk factors concurrently. More flexible machine learning (ML) approaches that can automatically detect main and interaction effects may provide novel insights for psychopathology by capturing the hidden nonlinear dependence between risk/protective characteristics.

Scientific Questions Being Studied

In this analysis, we aim to compare the characteristics of allofUS participants vs. the general population. This will inform if the allofUS participants are representative of the general population and if different participation characteristics vary across ancestry groups. This is important because to generalize the results observed in allofUS to the entire US population we need to understand how representative is this study.