Christy Avery, PhD

About

As a cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemiologist and Carolina Population Center fellow, my research interests span genomics, gene-environment interaction, and causal inference. Recently I have extended these research interests to include metabolomics, bioactive lipids, and ‘omics more broadly. I also teach graduate courses on epidemiologic data analysis and cardiovascular disease epidemiology. Finally, I lead the CV epidemiology program area and co-lead the CV genetic epidemiology computational laboratory (https://hlbgenepi.web.unc.edu/).

Christy Avery in the Gillings News

Honors and Awards

Health Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award
2021, UNC Gillings School of Public Health

Invited attendee
2016, AHA/ASA Research Leaders Academy

American Heart Association’s Sandra Daugherty Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular or Hypertension Epidemiology
2015, American Heart Association

Representative Courses

Epidemiologic Data Analysis (EPID 716) | Syllabus

Population Burden Measures in Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology (EPID 889) | Syllabus

Research Activities

Dr. Avery is interested in cardiovascular disease epidemiology, with specific areas related to heart failure, genetic epidemiology, pharmacogenomics and environmental health. She is also interested in translation-oriented methods to assess the burden of cardiovascular diseases in diverse populations.

Research Interests: Exposure Science, Heart Disease and Stroke

Key Publications

Multi-ethnic genome-wide association study of decomposed cardiac conduction phenotypes illustrates strategies to identify and characterize evidence of shared genetic effects for complex traits. Baldassari AR, Sitlani CM, Highland HM, Arking DE, Buyske S, Darbar D, Gondalia R, Graff M, Guo X, Heckbert SR, Hindorff LA, Hodonsky CJ, Chen Y-DI, Kaplan RC, Peters U, Post W, Reiner AP, Rotter JI, Shohet RV, Sotoodehnia N, Tao R, Taylor KD, Yao J, Kenny EE, Lin HJ, Soliman EZ, Whitsel EA, North KE, Kooperberg C, Avery CL (2024). Circ Precision Med, 4(13).

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in nucleotide excision repair genes, cancer treatment, and head and neck cancer survival. C Avery, J Barnholtz-Sloan, J Bensen, W Funkhouser, A Herring, A Olshan, M Weissler, A Wyss (2014). Cancer causes & control : CCC, 25(4), 437-50.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in nucleotide excision repair genes, cancer treatment, and head and neck cancer survival. C Avery, J Barnholtz-Sloan, J Bensen, W Funkhouser, A Herring, A Olshan, M Weissler, A Wyss (2014). Cancer causes & control : CCC, 25(4), 437-50.

Comparison of study designs used to detect and characterize pharmacogenomic interactions in nonexperimental studies: a simulation study. C Avery, J Der, T Stürmer, E Whitsel (2014). Pharmacogenetics and genomics, 24(3), 146-55.

Comparison of study designs used to detect and characterize pharmacogenomic interactions in nonexperimental studies: A simulation study. Christy Avery, Jane Der, Til Stürmer, Eric Whitsel (2014). Pharmacogenetics and Genomics.

Drug-gene interactions and the search for missing heritability: A cross-sectional pharmacogenomics study of the QT interval. D.E. Arking, D.K. Arnett, C.L. Avery, J.C. Bis, E. Boerwinkle, B.M. Buckley, Y.-D. Chen, A.J.M. Craen, C. Duijn, M. Eijgelsheim, D. Enquobahrie, D.S. Evans, I. Ford, M.E. Garcia, V. Gudnason, T.B. Harris, S.R. Heckbert, H. Hochner, A. Hofman, W.-C. Hsueh, A. Isaacs, J.W. Jukema, P. Knekt, J.A. Kors, B.P. Krijthe, K. Kristiansson, M. Laaksonen, X. Li, Y. Liu, P.W. Macfarlane, C. Newton-Cheh, M.S. Nieminen, B.A. Oostra, G.M. Peloso, K. Porthan, B.M. Psaty, K. Rice, F.F. Rivadeneira, J.I. Rotter, V. Salomaa, N. Sattar, D.S. Siscovick, C.M. Sitlani, P.E. Slagboom, A.V. Smith, N. Sotoodehnia, D.J. Stott, B.H. Stricker, T. Stürmer, S. Trompet, A.G. Uitterlinden, R.G.J. Westendorp, E.A. Whitsel, J.C. Witteman (2014). Pharmacogenomics Journal, 14(1), 6-13.

Education