Associate Professor and Principal Investigator
Dr. Mersha is a recognized expert in the field of genetic ancestry, race, admixture mapping and mining genomic databases related to complex diseases. His research combines quantitative, ancestry and statistical genomics to unravel genetic and non-genetic contributions to complex diseases and racial disparities in human populations, particularly asthma and asthma-related allergic disorders. Specific research interest span genetic ancestry analysis in admixed population, gene-environment interaction that shape racial disparities, transcriptome profiling and associated genetic networks analysis, role of microbiome in disease pathogenesis among immigrants, and developing web-based bioinformatics tools designed to integrate multiple omics resources from public database. Dr. Mersha’s research program is supported by both federal and institutional grant funding including an R01 award. Among his significant contribution, his team developed AncestrySNPminer, the first web-based bioinformatics tool to retrieve ancestry-informative markers (AIMs) from the genomic databases (CCHMC Technology disclosure #: 2011-1105). Dr. Mersha is the recipient of multiple awards and honors including the 2017 Faculty Research Achievement Award from Cincinnati Children’s, and the 2017 African Professionals Network (APNET) Business & Professional Achievement Award.
View Dr. Mersha's web bio.