Faculty Profiles

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).