Wei Zhao
- Email Wei Zhao
- (734)647-1771
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- Google Scholar Profile
BIO
Wei Zhao is a Research Assistant Professor at the Survey Research Center in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (UM) and is affiliated with the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health (CSEPH), the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging (MiCDA), the Eisenberg Family Depression Center, and the UM Precision Health. Dr. Zhao is an interdisciplinary researcher with training in genetic epidemiology, statistics, psychology, and neuroscience. Her research aims to understand the genetic architecture of complex human diseases and traits. She applies cutting-edge high-dimensional statistical models and methods to investigate the relationship between multi-omics (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics), social/environmental factors, and complex traits in multi-ancestry populations. She has studied a variety of health outcomes and behaviors with a recent focus on cognition, dementia, and mental health-related traits. Dr. Zhao has been a key player in the genomic data cleaning and analytical efforts of multiple large-scale studies, including the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), The Longitudinal Study of Aging in Indian -Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (LASI-DAD), the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy Study (GENOA), and the Study of Women’s health Across the Nation (SWAN). She currently leads the genomic data collection and dissemination efforts in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).
- Lisha Lin, Wei Zhao, Zheng Li, Scott M. Ratliff, Yi Zhe Wang, Colter Mitchell, Jessica Danielle Faul, Sharon L. R. Kardia, Kira S Birditt, Jennifer Ann Smith. 2025. Poly-epigenetic scores for cardiometabolic risk factors interact with demographic factors and health behaviors in older US Adults. Epigenetics
- Opsasnick, Lauren A., Wei Zhao, Schmitz, Lauren L., Ratliff, Scott M., Jessica Danielle Faul, Zhou, Xiang, Belinda Needham, Jennifer Ann Smith. 2025. Depressive symptoms partially mediate the relationship between psychosocial factors and epigenetic age acceleration in a multi-racial/ethnic sample of older adults. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health 45:100994.
- , ..., Wei Zhao, Jessica Danielle Faul, Jennifer Ann Smith, David R Weir, et al.. 2025. Translational genomics of osteoarthritis in 1,962,069 individuals. Nature
- Roselli, Carolina, ..., Jessica Danielle Faul, Wei Zhao, Jennifer Ann Smith, Et al.. 2025. Meta-analysis of genome-wide associations and polygenic risk prediction for atrial fibrillation in more than 180,000 cases. Nature Genetics
- Li, Xihao, ..., Jennifer Ann Smith, Wei Zhao, et al.. 2025. A statistical framework for multi-trait rare variant analysis in large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies. Nature Computational Science
- Chaar, Dima L., Tu, Le , Moore, Kari, Du, Jiacong , Opsasnick, Lauren A, Ratliff, Scott M, Mosley, Thomas H, Kardia, Sharon L. R., Wei Zhao, Zhou, Xiang, Diez Roux, Ana V, Faruque, Fazlay S, Butler, Kenneth R, Jennifer Ann Smith. 2025. Neighborhood environment associations with cognitive function and structural brain measures in older African Americans. BMC Medicine 23(1):1-20.
- Wei Zhao, Lisha Lin, Kristen M. Kelly, Lauren A. Opsasnick, Belinda Needham, Yongmei Liu, Srijan Sen, Jennifer Ann Smith. 2025. Epigenome-wide association study of perceived discrimination in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Epigenetics 20(1)
- Yi Zhe Wang, Wei Zhao, Priya Moorjani, Alden L. Gross, Xiang Zhou, Aparajit B. Dey, Jinkook Lee, Jennifer Ann Smith, Sharon L. R. Kardia. 2024. Effect of apolipoprotein E ε4 and its modification by sociodemographic characteristics on cognitive measures in South Asians from LASI‐DAD. Alzheimer's & Dementia 20(7):4854-4867.
- Hrytsenko, Yana, ..., Jennifer Ann Smith, Wei Zhao, et al.. 2024. Machine learning models for predicting blood pressure phenotypes by combining multiple polygenic risk scores. Scientific Reports 14(1):1-17.
- Jessica I. Lundin, ..., Farah Ammous, Jennifer Ann Smith, Wei Zhao, et al.. 2024. Methylation patterns associated with C-reactive protein in racially and ethnically diverse populations. Epigenetics 19(1)