Biographies

E-mail this page

(All fields required)

Recipient's email address

Please enter a valid email.

Your name

Please enter your name.

Your email address

Please enter a valid email.

Find another Doctor or Researcher

High Res

Tesfaye B. Mersha, PhD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Phone: 513-803-2766

Fax: 513-636-1657

Email: tesfaye.mersha@cchmc.org

Show All

Specialties

Clinical Interests

Allergy and allergy related disorders

Research Interests

Quantitative and statistical genetics and genomics; genetic linkage, association and admixture analysis; expression analysis; network and pathway analysis; gene ontology and functional commonalities analysis

Visit the Mersha Lab.

Biography

Tesfaye B. Mersha, PhD, is a quantitative geneticist. His background includes an early exposure to the many facets of biology and statistics and interested in cross-line disciplines to understand and solve complex genetic problems. During his post-doctoral fellowship program in statistical and human genetics, Dr. Mersha worked on statistical genetics methodologies and applied genetical data analysis to localize disease genes. Particularly, he focused on genetic analyses of metabolic and mental disorders using linkage, association and admixture mapping approach.

He developed genome-wide ancestry informative markers (AIMs) panel by mining databases including HapMap, Affymetrix and Illumina. The AIM markers are useful in ancestry inference, admixture mapping and structured association testing. He used over 4 million HapMap SNP data and developed approaches of chromosomal based finer population genetic structure characterization, localization of private SNPs and associated genes and pathways that could have pharmacogenomics implication.

In addition, Dr. Mersha is working on gene regulatory networks, gene ontology enrichment analysis and molecular profiling using various biologic and bioinformatic methodology for prioritizing asthma candidate genes. Dr. Mersha’s overall research interest and goal includes the use of population genomics, quantitative genetics, statistical genetics as well as proteomics and biological profiling and pathway methods to understand and dissect common complex diseases.

Education and Training

PhD: University of Goettingen, Germany, 2004.

MS: Alemaya University, Ethiopia, 1996.

BS: Alemaya University, Ethiopia, 1992.

Publications

View PubMed Publications

Baye TM. Inter-chromosomal variation in the pattern of human population genetic structure. Human Genomics. 2011;5(4):220–240.

Baye TM, Butsch Kovacic M, Biagini Myers JM, Martin LJ, Lindsey M, Patterson TL, He H, Ericksen MB, Gupta J, Tsoras AM, Lindsley A, Rothenberg ME, Wills-Karp M, Eissa NT, Borish L, Khurana Hershey GK. Differences in Candidate Gene Association between European Ancestry and African American Asthmatic Children. PLoS One. 2011 Feb 28;6(2):e16522.

Baye TM, Abebe T, Wilke RA. Genotype-environment interactions and their translational implications. Personalized Medicine. 2011;8:59-70.

Baye TM, Wilke RA. Mapping genes that predict treatment outcome in admixed populations. Pharmacogenomics J. 2010 Dec;10(6):465-77.

Baye TM, Wilke RA. Mapping genes that predict treatment outcome in admixed populations. Pharmacogenomics J. 2010 Dec;10(6):465-77.

Baye TM, Martin LJ, Khurana Hershey GK. Application of genetic/genomic approaches to allergic disorders. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010 Sep;126(3):425-36; quiz 437-8.

Gawrieh S, Baye TM, Carless M, Wallace J, Komorowski R, Kleiner DE, Andris D, Makladi B, Cole R, Charlton M, Curran J, Dyer TD, Charlesworth J, Wilke R, Blangero J, Kissebah AH, Olivier M. Hepatic gene networks in morbidly obese patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.Obes Surg. 2010 Dec;20(12):1698-709.

Zhang Y, Smith EM, Baye TM, Eckert JV, Abraham LJ, Moses EK, Kissebah AH, Martin LJ, Olivier M. Serotonin (5-HT) receptor 5A sequence variants affect human plasma triglyceride levels.Physiol Genomics. 2010 Jul 7;42(2):168-76.

Baye TM, Wilke RA, Olivier M. Genomic and geographic distribution of private SNPs and pathways in human populations.Per Med. 2009 Nov 1;6(6):623-641.

Smith EM, Zhang Y, Baye TM, Gawrieh S, Cole R, Blangero J, Carless MA, Curran JE, Dyer TD, Abraham LJ, Moses EK, Kissebah AH, Martin LJ, Olivier M. INSIG1 influences obesity-related hypertriglyceridemia in humans.J Lipid Res. 2010 Apr;51(4):701-8.

Grants

Admixture Mapping in African American Asthmatic Children. Principal Investigator. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Jul 2010 - May 2015. #1K01HL103165.