Faculty Profile
Melissa A. Austin, Ph.D.
Dr. Austin is Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Director of the Institute for Public Health Genetics (IPHG) at the UW, and Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the UW Graduate School.
Dr. Austin's research program focuses on the genetic epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer. Her NIH-funded projects have included two large-scale family studies, one studying the genetics hyperlipidemia and the other studying risk for diabetes and the metabolic syndrome among Japanese Americans. Most recently, she is investigating candidate genes for pancreatic cancer in two case-controls studies funded by the National Cancer Institute. Her laboratory-based collaborations involve measuring lipoprotein subfractions and serving as a DNA repository for pancreas cancer studies. She also holds an adjunct position in the Department of Medical History and Ethics, and is a co-investigator of the UW Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health.
In her role as director of the IPHG, Dr. Austin leads an interdisciplinary team of faculty members from seven different schools and colleges that form the IPHG (Public Health, Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Arts and Sciences, and Public Affairs), funded by the University Initiative Fund at the UW. She oversees academic, research and community outreach activities for the IPHG, including the MPH in Public Health Genetics and the Ph.D. in Public Health Genetics degree programs; workshops in public health genetics for health professionals; and partnerships with public health agencies including the Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She teaches PHG511/EPI517, Genetic Epidemiology in the spring quarter.
As Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Austin oversees academic reviews of all graduate programs at the UW, approval of new graduate degree programs, and coordination of the 17 interdisciplinary degree programs administered by the Graduate School.
Dr. Austin served on the Advisory Council for the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute from 2000 to 2004, and was an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association from 1994 to 1999. She was on sabbatical in 2001 with support from the International Atherosclerosis Society and the Department of Epidemiology. During that time, she was an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge attached to the Public Health Genetics Unit, and was a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Cardiovascular Genetics at University College London.
Note: This page features a profile of one member of the IPHG's outstanding faculty. Faculty profiles will be rotated periodically. For faculty profiles published in the past, see Faculty Profile Archive.