Background and activities

Brooke N. Wolford has a PhD in Bioinformatics and Master in Statistics from the University of Michigan. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the Department for Public Health and Nursing under the mentorship of Professor Kristian Hveem. Brooke is working with the INTERVENE Project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the leadership of Dr. Andrea Ganna and Professor Samuli Ripatti at the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine.

Brooke is a recent invitee to the K.G. Jebsen Academy of Young Medical Researchers as recognition for the 2022 Best Dissemination Award amongst K.G. Jebsen Centers across Norway. She is also a 2022 finalist for the Charles J. Epstein Trainee Awards for Excellence in Human Genetics Research given by the American Society of Human Genetics. Brooke is pursuing a research career combining statistical genetics, computational biology, and clinical application to fulfill the promise of precision medicine. She is also committed to communicating scientific findings to general audiences, teaching science literacy and quantitative skills to youth, and following open science practices.

During her graduate studies she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and Genome Sciences Predoctoral Trainee. She completed a dissertation titled “Genetic Discovery and Precision Medicine in Cardiovascular Diseases Using Electronic Health Record-linked Biobanks” under the mentorship of Dr. Cristen Willer and Dr. Michael Boehnke. Before graduate school, Brooke spent two years as a postbaccalaureate intramural research trainee in the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD studying the genetics of type 2 diabetes with Dr. Francis Collins. Brooke is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Biology having earned highest honors and highest distinction.

Access Brooke's Curriculum Vitae for teaching experience, presentations, grants, and awards.

Selected Publications

View more publications at Google Scholar, PubMed, or ORCiD.
* indicates equal contributions

  • Aragam K*, Jiang T*, Goel A*, Kanoi S*, Wolford BN*, [60 authors], Willer CJ, Eloukas P, Kathiresan S, Butterworth A, on behalf of the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium. Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants for coronary artery disease in over a million participants. Nature Genetics. In press. bioRxiv.

  • Duda M*, Sovacool, KL*, [14 authors], Lapp Z*, Wolford BN*. Teaching Python for Data Science: Collaborative development of a modular and interactive curriculum. Journal of Open Source Education, 4(46), 138. PMID: 35187422. (17/12/2021)

  • Fan Y*, Wolford BN*, Lu H*, [20 authors], Willer CJ, Chen YE. Type 2 diabetes sex-specific effects associated with E167K coding variant in TM6SF2. iScience. PMID: 34746691. (19/11/2021)

  • COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (banner authorship). Mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19 by worldwide meta-analysis. Nature. PMID: 34237774. (08/07/2021)

  • Wolford BN*, Hornsby WE*, [19 authors], Milewicz DM, Willer CJ, Yang B. Clinical implications of identifying pathogenic variants in individuals with thoracic aortic dissection. Circulation Genomic and Precision Medicine 12(6): 273-280. PMID: 31211624. (18/06/2019)

  • Wolford BN, Willer CJ, and Surakka I. Electronic health records: the next wave of complex disease genetics. Human Molecular Genetics, 27:R14-R21. PMID: 29547983. (01/05/2018)

  • Kycia I, Wolford BN, [16 authors], Collins FS, Parker SCJ, Stitzel ML. A common type 2 diabetes risk variant potentiates activity of an evolutionarily conserved islet stretch enhancer and increases C2CD4A and C2CD4B expression. American Journal of Human Genetics 102(4):620-635. PMID: 29625024. (05/04/2018)

Institutional Responsibilities