Saxena Lab

Dissecting causal role of insomnia in cardiovascular disease

This project aims to identify genes and pathways at GWAS loci for insomnia symptoms in humans, test the consequence of loss-of-function of Drosophila orthologs on sleep and cardiac function, and test the impact of perturbed sleep on cardiovascular function in humans and Drosophila.

Genetic links between chronic fatigue and long COVID

Genetic approaches leveraging large biobanks offer opportunities for gene discovery unbiased to known biology that should provide insights into the biological underpinnings and possible genetic links with long COVID.

Genetics of chronotype and impact on metabolic disease

The project aims to define the genetic basis of subjectively and objectively assessed chronotype, characterize the functional molecular, cellular, and physiologic consequences of causal genes, and variants, and dissect shared genetic relationships between chronotype and metabolic disease outcomes.

Multi-omics for precision medicine in preeclampsia

This project aims to discover common and rare variants for preeclampsia, identify molecular pathways altered before clinically defined disease using multi-omics analysis, and use PE polygenic scores to predict maternal morbidity and future maternal cardiovascular health.