Genetics and Complex Diseases
Adaptation to alterations in nutrients, changes in lifestyle and dietary exposures, and environmental factors is central to human health. The complex interplay of biological processes with environmental factors as they apply to chronic, multigenic, and multifactorial diseases is the emphasis of the department of genetics and complex diseases.
Research programs in the department focus on molecular mechanisms of adaptive responses to environmental signals to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the intricate interaction between genetic determinants and their divergent responses to stress signals or metabolic input. Alterations in these integrated adaptive mechanisms, central to many devastating disorders such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, have a major impact on the health of human populations worldwide.
The research activities in the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases and its pre and postdoctoral training programs concentrate on the molecular, cellular, and organismic adaptations and responses to nutrients, toxins, and radiation stress and explore the genetic and molecular networks controlling these interactions in experimental systems. Programmatic focus is on genetic and mechanistic approaches to biological adaptation. Integrated interdisciplinary opportunities also aim to apply this knowledge to human populations to understand, prevent, and treat complex human diseases.
Faculty research is concentrated within several broad categories, including stress and inflammatory signaling pathways, genetic and epigenetic regulation of chronic inflammation, nutrient sensing and molecular transport, oxidative stress and adaptive stress resistance, hormone action, and metabolic homeostasis, and the role of endoplasmic reticulum dysfunction, nuclear hormone receptors, cell growth and proliferation, and protein stability. The diseases under study include nutritional and metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases; cancer; and aging. As most of these health problems emerge as clusters, the translation of research involves multidisciplinary collaborations with faculty members in other HSPH departments and Harvard-affiliated centers, as well as other institutions particularly involved in gene-environment interactions and application of high-density and genomic-based technologies and proteomic approaches to physiological platforms.
Degree Programs in Genetics and Complex Diseases
As described below, the department offers the doctor of philosophy (PhD) program. No master of science programs are available.
Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences in Public Health (Genetics and Complex Diseases)
Students wishing to study disease mechanisms and the integrated biology of chronic complex diseases (including metabolic disorders, cancer, and aging) as they pertain to major problems in public health should apply to the PhD program offered by the Division of Biological Sciences through the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. For more information about the PhD program, see web site.
Contact Information
For more information about re search and training in genetics and complex diseases, please contact:
Julie Gound, Director of Administration
Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases
665 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115.
Phone: 617-432-0054
Fax: 617-432-5236
Email: jgound@hsph.harvard.edu
For the PhD Program in Biological Sciences in Public Health, online submissions are encouraged, using the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) application form available at the web address below: