Yann Klimentidis, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona.
His research focuses mainly on the use of genetic information to learn about body composition, health-related behavior, and cardio-metabolic, and neurodegenerative traits/diseases. The broad goals of his research are to: 1) understand mechanisms of disease, 2) identify risk factors for disease, 3) understand health disparities, and 4) improve prediction of disease risk. Approaches include genome-wide association studies, Mendelian randomization, gene-by-environment interactions, and genetic ancestry studies.
Dr. Klimentidis uses data from the UK Biobank, NHANES, All of Us, Framingham Heart Study, and from other local, national, and global studies. Current projects focus on the genetic basis of lipid and glycemic traits, physical activity behavior, and lipedema, as well as examining the putative causal links among these traits and with cardio-metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.