Elizabeth Leslie and Jingjing Yang honored as top Emory researchers
SEPTEMBER 2024
Elizabeth Leslie, PhD, and Jingjing Yang, PhD, have been named top Emory researchers by the Recognitions Committee at Emory School of Medicine. In recognition of Researcher Appreciation Day, the committee sent out a call for nominations for researchers across the school who are advancing the knowledge base in their field. The final listees were nominated by their peers and colleagues for their groundbreaking research, development of new technologies, and continued pursuit of novel and innovative ideas.
Dr. Leslie's research combines genomics with deep phenotyping to understand the genetic architecture of craniofacial birth defects and fundamental questions of phenotypic heterogeneity, penetrance, and variable expressivity. Her work leads efforts to establish and expand repositories of samples and sequencing datasets from patients with structural birth defects. These resources facilitate research in her laboratory and are available to the international scientific community.
Dr. Yang's investigations focus on developing statistical methods and tools to integrate multi-omics data for studying complex human diseases, such as Alzheimers Disease, mobile disability, and Parkinson disease. Her studies have enabled a better understanding of the functional impact of genetic variants associated with disease and the development of models to predict disease risk. Dr. Yang's line of scholarly inquiry has had both a translational impact and a strong affect on basic science research.