Laura Almasy
· Ph.D.University of Pennsylvania · Rehabilitation Medicine
Active 1995–2025
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About
Laura Almasy, Ph.D., is a Professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. She is affiliated with the Department of Genetics and the Graduate Group in Genomics and Computational Biology. Her educational background includes a B.A. in Biology and Psychology from Swarthmore College, an M.Phil. in Genetics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Yale University. Her research focuses on genetic and genomic analyses related to complex traits, brain architecture, inflammation, and psychiatric disorders. She has contributed to understanding gene dosage effects across traits, genetic risk factors for schizophrenia, and the genetic regulation of plasma fibrinogen levels, among other topics. Her work involves applying genomic and computational methods to elucidate the genetic architecture underlying various health-related traits and conditions.
Research topics
- Genetics
- Biology
- Computer Science
- Computational biology
- Medicine
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Demography
- Endocrinology
- Internal medicine
Selected publications
Sequencing of 53,831 diverse genomes from the NHLBI TOPMed Program
Nature · 2021 · 2261 citations
. In the first 53,831 TOPMed samples, we detected more than 400 million single-nucleotide and insertion or deletion variants after alignment with the reference genome. Additional previously undescribed variants were detected through assembly of unmapped reads and customized analysis in highly variable loci. Among the more than 400 million detected variants, 97% have frequencies of less than 1% and 46% are singletons that are present in only one individual (53% among unrelated individuals). These…
Inherited causes of clonal haematopoiesis in 97,691 whole genomes
Nature · 2020 · 726 citations
Nature Genetics · 2022 · 354 citations
Nature Neuroscience · 2021 · 329 citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 110 citations
), which suggest that variation in DNM rate is significantly shaped by nonadditive genetic effects and the environment.
Recent grants
NIH · $1.1M · 2015
NIH · $1.5M · 2008
NIH · $75k
Frequent coauthors
- 674 shared
John Blangero
- 538 shared
David C. Glahn
Harvard University
- 309 shared
Joanne E. Curran
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
- 309 shared
Howard J. Edenberg
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
- 286 shared
Harald H.H. Göring
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
- 271 shared
Bernice Porjesz
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
- 266 shared
Tatiana Foroud
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
- 255 shared
Kari E. North
Education
- 1990
B.A., Biology and Psychology
Swarthmore College
- 1992
Other, Genetics
Yale University
- 1996
Ph.D., Genetics
Yale University
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