Dr. Misa Graff is Research Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Graff's research interests focus on the genetics of obesity and cardiovascular disease risk traits, with an overarching goal of integrating understanding of both genetic and environmental risk factors for disease, particularly among minority populations. Dr. Graff's current projects include the genetic epidemiology of weight gain across adolescence into young adulthood; gene-environment interactions across multiple large cohorts; the genetic architecture of adiposity in African Americans and Hispanics; and examination of genetic effects influencing cardiovascular disease risk traits and diseases burdening minority populations.
Recent Publications
- Zhang, X, Brody, JA, Graff, M, Highland, HM, Chami, N, Xu, H, Wang, Z, Ferrier, KR, Chittoor, G, Josyula, NS et al.. Whole genome sequencing analysis of body mass index identifies novel African ancestry-specific risk allele. Nat Commun 2025; 16 (1): 3470. PubMed PMID:40216759 PubMed Central PMC11992084.
- Zhang, X, Scadden, AW, Marthi, A, Buchanan, VL, Qu, Y, Ferrier, KR, Chen, BD, Graff, M, Avila, J, Boerwinkle, E et al.. Alterations in DNA Methylation, Proteomic, and Metabolomic Profiles in African Ancestry Populations with APOL1 Risk Alleles. J Am Soc Nephrol 2025; : . PubMed PMID:40193202 .
- Nagarajan, P, Winkler, TW, Bentley, AR, Miller, CL, Kraja, AT, Schwander, K, Lee, S, Wang, W, Brown, MR, Morrison, JL et al.. A large-scale genome-wide study of gene-sleep duration interactions for blood pressure in 811,405 individuals from diverse populations. Mol Psychiatry 2025; : . PubMed PMID:40181193 .
- Chen, HH, Highland, HM, Frankel, EG, Scartozzi, AC, Zhang, X, Roshani, R, Sharma, P, Kar, A, Buchanan, VL, Polikowsky, HG et al.. Multiomics reveal key inflammatory drivers of severe obesity: IL4R, LILRA5, and OSM. Cell Genom 2025; 5 (3): 100784. PubMed PMID:40043711 PubMed Central PMC11960538.
- Downie, CG, Shrestha, P, Okello, S, Yaser, M, Lee, HH, Wang, Y, Krishnan, M, Chen, HH, Justice, AE, Chittoor, G et al.. Trans-ancestry genome-wide association study of childhood body mass index identifies novel loci and age-specific effects. HGG Adv 2025; 6 (2): 100411. PubMed PMID:39885687 PubMed Central PMC11875162.
- Li, Y, Wong, KY, Howard, AG, Gordon-Larsen, P, Highland, HM, Graff, M, North, KE, Downie, CG, Avery, CL, Yu, B et al.. Multivariable Mendelian randomization with incomplete measurements on the exposure variables in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. HGG Adv 2024; 5 (4): 100338. PubMed PMID:39095990 PubMed Central PMC11382109.
- Wang, H, Nagarajan, P, Winkler, T, Bentley, A, Miller, C, Kraja, A, Schwander, K, Lee, S, Wang, W, Brown, M et al.. A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Study of Gene-Sleep Duration Interactions for Blood Pressure in 811,405 Individuals from Diverse Populations. Res Sq 2024; : . PubMed PMID:39070651 PubMed Central PMC11276021.
- Nagarajan, P, Winkler, TW, Bentley, AR, Miller, CL, Kraja, AT, Schwander, K, Lee, S, Wang, W, Brown, MR, Morrison, JL et al.. A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Study of Gene-Sleep Duration Interactions for Blood Pressure in 811,405 Individuals from Diverse Populations. medRxiv 2024; : . PubMed PMID:38496537 PubMed Central PMC10942520.
- Avery, CL, Howard, AG, Lee, HH, Downie, CG, Lee, MP, Koenigsberg, SH, Ballou, AF, Preuss, MH, Raffield, LM, Yarosh, RA et al.. Branched chain amino acids harbor distinct and often opposing effects on health and disease. Commun Med (Lond) 2023; 3 (1): 172. PubMed PMID:38017291 PubMed Central PMC10684599.
- Bukowski, A, Hoyo, C, Vielot, NA, Graff, M, Kosorok, MR, Brewster, WR, Maguire, RL, Murphy, SK, Nedjai, B, Ladoukakis, E et al.. Epigenome-wide methylation and progression to high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2+): a prospective cohort study in the United States. BMC Cancer 2023; 23 (1): 1072. PubMed PMID:37932662 PubMed Central PMC10629205.
