DANA C. CRAWFORD, PHD
Associate Director for Population and Diversity Research
Dana Crawford, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and Associate Director for Population and Diversity Research in the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology. She also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences. Dr. Crawford received her Ph.D. at Emory University in genetics and molecular biology in 2000 and then trained as a post-doctoral fellow as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2000–2002) and as a senior fellow at the University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences (2002–2006). Prior to her most current position, Dr. Crawford spent eight years as tenure-track faculty in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Investigator in the Center for Human Genetics Research at Vanderbilt University. As a genetic epidemiologist at CWRU, Dr. Crawford’s broad research interests include applying genetic variation data to large-scale epidemiologic and clinical cohorts to better understand human genotype-phenotype associations with an emphasis on diverse populations.
Recent Publications
- Conti, DV, Darst, BF, Moss, LC, Saunders, EJ, Sheng, X, Chou, A, Schumacher, FR, Olama, AAA, Benlloch, S, Dadaev, T et al.. Publisher Correction: Trans-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of prostate cancer identifies new susceptibility loci and informs genetic risk prediction. Nat Genet 2021; 53 (3): 413. PubMed PMID:33473200 .
- Conti, DV, Darst, BF, Moss, LC, Saunders, EJ, Sheng, X, Chou, A, Schumacher, FR, Olama, AAA, Benlloch, S, Dadaev, T et al.. Trans-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of prostate cancer identifies new susceptibility loci and informs genetic risk prediction. Nat Genet 2021; 53 (1): 65-75. PubMed PMID:33398198 .
- Cooke Bailey, JN, Bush, WS, Crawford, DC. Editorial: The Importance of Diversity in Precision Medicine Research. Front Genet 2020; 11 : 875. PubMed PMID:33005167 PubMed Central PMC7479241.
- Ong, E, Wang, LL, Schaub, J, O'Toole, JF, Steck, B, Rosenberg, AZ, Dowd, F, Hansen, J, Barisoni, L, Jain, S et al.. Modelling kidney disease using ontology: insights from the Kidney Precision Medicine Project. Nat Rev Nephrol 2020; 16 (11): 686-696. PubMed PMID:32939051 PubMed Central PMC8012202.
- Karunamuni, RA, Huynh-Le, MP, Fan, CC, Thompson, W, Eeles, RA, Kote-Jarai, Z, Muir, K, UKGPCS Collaborators, Lophatananon, A, Tangen, CM et al.. African-specific improvement of a polygenic hazard score for age at diagnosis of prostate cancer. Int J Cancer 2021; 148 (1): 99-105. PubMed PMID:32930425 .
- McDonough, CW, Babcock, K, Chucri, K, Crawford, DC, Bian, J, Modave, F, Cooper-DeHoff, RM, Hogan, WR. Optimizing identification of resistant hypertension: Computable phenotype development and validation. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2020; 29 (11): 1393-1401. PubMed PMID:32844549 PubMed Central PMC7754782.
- Darst, BF, Wan, P, Sheng, X, Bensen, JT, Ingles, SA, Rybicki, BA, Nemesure, B, John, EM, Fowke, JH, Stevens, VL et al.. A Germline Variant at 8q24 Contributes to Familial Clustering of Prostate Cancer in Men of African Ancestry. Eur Urol 2020; 78 (3): 316-320. PubMed PMID:32409115 PubMed Central PMC7805560.
- Pendergrass, SA, Buyske, S, Jeff, JM, Frase, A, Dudek, S, Bradford, Y, Ambite, JL, Avery, CL, Buzkova, P, Deelman, E et al.. A phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study reveals potential pleiotropy in African Americans. PLoS One 2019; 14 (12): e0226771. PubMed PMID:31891604 PubMed Central PMC6938343.
- Crawford, DC, Lin, J, Cooke Bailey, JN, Kinzy, T, Sedor, JR, O'Toole, JF, Bush, WS. Frequency of ClinVar Pathogenic Variants in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Surveyed for Return of Research Results at a Cleveland Public Hospital. Pac Symp Biocomput 2020; 25 : 575-586. PubMed PMID:31797629 PubMed Central PMC6931908.
- Bush, WS, Cooke Bailey, JN, Beno, MF, Crawford, DC. Bridging the Gaps in Personalized Medicine Value Assessment: A Review of the Need for Outcome Metrics across Stakeholders and Scientific Disciplines. Public Health Genomics 2019; 22 (1-2): 16-24. PubMed PMID:31454805 PubMed Central PMC6752968.
Featured Publications

Characterization of the Metabochip in diverse populations from the International HapMap Project in the Epidemiologic Architecture for Genes Linked to Environment (EAGLE) project.
Crawford DC, Goodloe R, Brown-Gentry K, Wilson S, Roberson J, Gillani NB, Ritchie MD, Dilks HH, Bush WS,. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of genomic regions associated with common human disease and quantitative traits. A major research avenue for mature genotype-phenotype associations is the identification of the true risk or functional variant for […]

Enabling high-throughput genotype-phenotype associations in the Epidemiologic Architecture for Genes Linked to Environment (EAGLE) project as part of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.
Bush WS, Boston J, Pendergrass SA, Dumitrescu L, Goodloe R, Brown-Gentry K, Wilson S, McClellan B, Torstenson E, Basford MA, Spencer KL, Ritchie MD, Crawford DC,. Genetic association studies have rapidly become a major tool for identifying the genetic basis of common human diseases. The advent of cost-effective genotyping coupled with large collections of samples […]
Dana on Twitter
Have family, friends, or even colleagues spouting misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines? Here's a webinar for you! #COVID19Vaccine #COVID19 twitter.com/GeneticsSociet…
Don't miss out our webinar on April 20 at 1:30 PM Eastern! John Doucet, PhD and Pramod Mahajan, PhD will discuss how human geneticists can handle misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines. Kathryn Hall, PhD, MPH (@placebomeme) will moderate. Register now!https://t.co/h9lfjkr1qk
— ASHG (@GeneticsSociety) April 6, 2021
Srsly? twitter.com/NHGRI_Director…
Dogs are a remarkable species for understanding genetics and genomics. Their phenotypes are diverse, yet they are all one species. Their breeding is often precise and controlled, which makes genetic studies more straightforward. Basically, dogs are perfect. #GenomeFacts pic.twitter.com/95Ki6bQKlV
— Eric Green (@NHGRI_Director) April 2, 2021
Need a reason to nominate your colleague for an @ASHG 2021 award? Check out how it's going for @inthosegenepod Dr Janina Jeff, 2020 ASHG Advocacy Award winner! Six #ASHG21 awards are waiting for your nominations, due April 22nd... bit.ly/3rC8gYu twitter.com/inthosegenespo…
So excited to announce that I’ve been selected as one of 5 Fellows for the Future by @500womensci for @inthosegenespod !!
— Dr. Jay Electronica (@inthosegenespod) April 1, 2021
🧬🧬🧬🧬
I am so excited to join a community of like-minded visionaries that prioritize humanhood in its many ways to grow the world.
🧬🧬🧬🧬 pic.twitter.com/hlUL3dD5j9
Redfield and others like him use the weight of science and leadership positions to amplify conspiracy theories without actual scientific evidence, all under the cowardly protection of "opinions are my own." #notarealscientist twitter.com/CUEpidemiology…
.@drSteveMorse: "Now is not the time to add wild speculation to a global crisis. Speculation isn’t constructive, it doesn’t help us control the pandemic, and only distracts from the urgent work and global cooperation we need."https://t.co/AvNesn7G5d
— Columbia Epidemiology (@CUEpidemiology) March 29, 2021
ASHG is deeply troubled by recent acts of violence against the Asian American community. We condemn these acts of hatred, as well as all acts of racism, bias and discrimination. Read the full statement by ASHG President Gail Jarvik, MD, PhD on our website: bit.ly/31kjsgR Retweeted by Dr. Dana Crawford
A few ideas for your 15 minutes. youtu.be/BWWzmha1_jE #yoyoma #COVID19Vaccine twitter.com/Caroline_Bartm…
If YoYo Ma can give a concert at his vaccine site, I would like to present a poster at mine
— Dr. Caroline Bartman (@Caroline_Bartma) March 15, 2021
Wow: @crystaljjlee of @mitvis show in beautiful and informative data visualizations that @GovMikeDeWine is frequently mentioned in the anti-masker social networks. Hits too close to home in more than one way. #WearAMask twitter.com/mitvis/status/…
📢 We're excited to publish "The Data Visualizations Behind COVID-19 Skepticism", an interactive scrollytelling follow-up to our #chi2021 paper on "Viral Visualizations". https://t.co/mCh9DPPozS
— MIT Visualization Group (@mitvis) March 4, 2021
"That is very frustrating from a scientific standpoint and becomes extremely problematic when you're trying to implement a public health effort that could be lifesaving," he says. "And when you don't implement it, well, people die. That's serious."--Dr. Fauci twitter.com/NPR/status/136…
Listen to Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci reflect on the past year — from fighting "egregious" disinformation about the vaccine to when they think life will start to feel more normal.https://t.co/yvQuxZEOLs
— NPR (@NPR) March 10, 2021
@MikeEberle It’s hard to say—they were both wearing masks. #WearAMask
Received two compliments today at two separate businesses for my science mask combo. Gives me hope that people don’t believe all the garbage online about #COVID19. Let’s not be TX, OH. #WearAMask
@GreeneScientist @ontowonka @CUAnschutz WHAT? This is HUGE! Congrats to @GreeneScientist @ontowonka -- looks like you @CUAnschutz are building something great!
Feeling a pang of nostalgia for our old Nashville home. So much respect for @DollyParton in her artistry, philanthropy, and enormous capacity for compassion. Such a responsible use of celebrity. Here's hoping for another song on the second dose. twitter.com/DollyParton/st…
Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine. @VUMChealth pic.twitter.com/38kJrDzLqC
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) March 2, 2021
No pseudoscience here! Thrilled to have been invited by @clschuerger and @CWRU Women in Sciences and Humanities Earning Doctorates (WISHED) for last week's early evening discussion of big data and bias in research and in life.
Putting real science to meaningful practice: @CWRU is now an official vaccination site for the Cleveland area. case.edu/vaccine/ #COVID19
So proud to be associated with a scientist who applies her expertise and rigor in all her endeavors e.g., award winning "Dat Rona" episode dispelling harmful lies and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 severity and vaccines. #COVID19 tinyurl.com/czmzmza twitter.com/inthosegenespo…
Thank you so much @VUMC_MD for the feature article. My time at @VUMCgenetics with @CaturDNA truly shaped my career in genetics!
— Dr. Jay Electronica (@inthosegenespod) March 1, 2021
Janina Jeff, MS’12, PhD’12, Finding Lost Identities https://t.co/qWVyGTJX2q via @VanderbiltU
Genomics is an essential addition to the public health response to rare diseases. #RareDiseaseDay blogs.cdc.gov/genomics/2017/… Retweeted by Dr. Dana Crawford
Meanwhile (unbeknownst to me) at @AstraZeneca I’m hanging on the Black History in Science wall next to the Vice President @kamalaharris 🧬🧬🧬. . Happy Black History Month✊🏽 Retweeted by Dr. Dana Crawford
East Carolina University's @DrEricSoule is performing a survey of African American/Black scientists to better understand what barriers may exist in serving on NIH study sections. Check out hhp.ecu.edu/hep/hbtrl/ for more information on how to participate if you are interested.