Sarah Tishkoff Earns 2024 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science

Sarah Tishkoff, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Biology and Genetics, received the 2024 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, awarded to researchers who “have made significant contributions to the science of medicine.” She was recognized for her “groundbreaking work in evolutionary genetics and diversity” and its “broad implications for understanding and treating human disease.”
 
To conduct her research, Tishkoff combines fieldwork, laboratory work, and computational approaches to address fundamental questions about modern human evolutionary history and the genetic factors influencing traits related to adaptation and disease risk in Africa. With collaborators in Africa, she has created a database of genetic samples derived from more than 9,000 people representing more than 200 diverse ethnic groups—one of the largest datasets of its kind. She and colleagues are analyzing genomic data from these samples in the hopes of gaining knowledge about genetic structures and identification markers useful in gene-mapping studies; obtaining estimates of demographic parameters; and identifying genomic variants and pathways that play a role in human adaptation, phenotypic variation, and disease risk in African and African diaspora populations.
 
In addition to this most recent award, Tishkoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is President-Elect of the American Society of Human Genetics.