Positions
Post-doctoral Fellow, Michigan State University (2026-present)
Crawford and Cooke Bailey EPBI Graduate Student, CWRU (2020-2025)
Crawford MPH Student, CWRU (2019-2020)
Thesis
EXPANDING THE GENETIC LANDSCAPE OF PRIMARY OPEN-ANGLE GLAUCOMA THROUGH POPULATION DIVERSITY LEADS TO DISCOVERY OF NOVEL ASSOCIATIONS
Awards and Honors
Online Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics registration award, July 15-24, 2020
Supported by Biometric Genetic Analysis of Cardiopulmonary Disease (5T32HL007567-36) (2021-2023)
Supported by Visual Sciences Training Program (5T32EY007157-22) (2023-2025)
CWRU PQHS Olson Award 2023 for Outstanding student in Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology
NIH All of Us Research Program Scholar, 1st Place in Graduate Student/Medical Student/Professor category for oral presentations (2023-2024)
Prevent Blindness Ohio, Young Investigator Student Fellowship Award for 2024
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Travel Grant 2025
Recent Publications
- Cruz, LA, Liu, S, Miskimen, KL, Cooke Bailey, JN, Kinzy, T, Song, YE, Laux, RA, Miron, P, Ogrocki, PK, Lerner, AJ et al.. Evidence for reduced somatic T-cell receptor sequence diversity profiles among Midwestern Amish in an aging cohort study. medRxiv 2026; : . PubMed PMID:41646721 PubMed Central PMC12870599.
- Chang-Wolf, JM, Kinzy, TG, Driessen, SJ, Cruz, LA, Iyengar, SK, Peachey, NS, Aung, T, Khor, CC, Williams, SE, Ramsay, M et al.. Performance of Polygenic Risk Scores for Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma in Populations of African Descent. JAMA Ophthalmol 2025; 143 (1): 7-14. PubMed PMID:39541127 PubMed Central PMC11565374.
- Cruz, LA, Cooke Bailey, JN, Crawford, DC. Importance of Diversity in Precision Medicine: Generalizability of Genetic Associations Across Ancestry Groups Toward Better Identification of Disease Susceptibility Variants. Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci 2023; 6 : 339-356. PubMed PMID:37196357 PubMed Central PMC10720270.
- Cooke Bailey, JN, Funk, KL, Cruz, LA, Waksmunski, AR, Kinzy, TG, Wiggs, JL, Hauser, MA. Diversity in Polygenic Risk of Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma. Genes (Basel) 2022; 14 (1): . PubMed PMID:36672852 PubMed Central PMC9859496.
- Waksmunski, AR, Kinzy, TG, Cruz, LA, Nealon, CL, Halladay, CW, Anthony, SA, Greenberg, PB, Sullivan, JM, Wu, WC, Iyengar, SK et al.. Diversity is key for cross-ancestry transferability of glaucoma genetic risk scores in Hispanic Veterans in the Million Veteran Program. Pac Symp Biocomput 2023; 28 : 413-424. PubMed PMID:36540996 PubMed Central PMC9997528.
- Waksmunski, AR, Kinzy, TG, Cruz, LA, Nealon, CL, Halladay, CW, Simpson, P, Canania, RL, Anthony, SA, Roncone, DP, Sawicki Rogers, L et al.. Glaucoma Genetic Risk Scores in the Million Veteran Program. Ophthalmology 2022; 129 (11): 1263-1274. PubMed PMID:35718050 PubMed Central PMC9997524.
- Fealy, CE, Nieuwoudt, S, Foucher, JA, Scelsi, AR, Malin, SK, Pagadala, M, Cruz, LA, Li, M, Rocco, M, Burguera, B et al.. Functional high-intensity exercise training ameliorates insulin resistance and cardiometabolic risk factors in type 2 diabetes. Exp Physiol 2018; 103 (7): 985-994. PubMed PMID:29766601 PubMed Central PMC6026040.