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Disclaimer:
The following information is drawn from materials prepared by
candidates for promotion to full professor. It is intended to illustrate activities and materials that
might support promotion. In
using these materials, please note the following: *The
Provost (and, in some cases, the President) are the University officers
authorized to approve promotions.
All levels of review below these officers are advisory. *Only
Departments are empowered to propose promotions, and the Divisional Dean is
charged with transmitting such proposals to the Provost or returning them to
the Department. *The judgment of the Department, Dean, and Provost will
therefore be critical to assessing qualification for promotion. *Materials
considered by the Department, Dean, and Provost will also (and always)
include confidential evaluations obtained from outside the University. Materials considered by the Provost
will include the confidential evaluations of the Dean and Department, and
those considered by the Dean will include the confidential evaluations of the
Department. *Thus,
the following materials are ONLY PART of a complete proposal for promotion,
whereas promotion is based on the ENTIRE proposal. Therefore, it should not be assumed that a record
comparable to that below will necessarily result in promotion, or that a
record not comparable to that below will fail to result in promotion. The Departmental Chair is likely to
be the best source of advice as to whether promotion is feasible and, when it
is not, what additional activity may result in qualification for promotion. *This
document has been prepared as a tool for use by associate professors in the
Division of the Biological Sciences.
Other individuals who may find it informative are Department Chairmen,
Section Heads, Committee Chairmen, senior faculty and potential recruits. Its intent is to help guide
individuals and their departments as they think about promotion to
Professor. This document is not
intended to list the elements that every promotion proposal will be expected
to address. The following
information is presented for information purposes only and is not intended to
create any contract or agreement, and its contents are subject to addition,
deletion, and change without prior notice. |
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Name: |
Anna Di Rienzo,
Ph.D. |
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Department of Primary Appointment: |
Human Genetics |
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Secondary appointments: |
Biological Sciences Collegiate Division Committee on Genetics Committee on Clinical Pharmacology & Pharmacogenomiocs Cancer Research Center |
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Present rank: |
Tenured Associate Professor |
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Present track: |
Research Scholar (Tenure) |
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Proposed rank: |
PROFESSOR |
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Proposed track: |
RESEARCH SCHOLAR (TENURE) |
DEPARTMENT: What is the candidate's field or specialization?
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Human
population genetics |
LAY SUMMARY:
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Dr. Di Rienzo is probably best
known for her studies inferring human population history and demography from
heritable patterns of genetic variation. Examples include her now classic
study with the late Alan Wilson showing that genetic variation in mitochondrial
DNA could be used to infer population inferences in humans and her later
studies showing that differences in African, European, and Chinese
populations were compatible with a simple bottleneck in the Òout of AfricaÓ
groups. AnnaÕs early studies helped explain the evolution of variation among
the repeat sequence markers that geneticists commonly use for gene mapping. Subsequently
she led the field using population genetic strategies to detect the effects
of positive selection pressure acting at the single nucleotide level, to
demonstrate the role that gene conversion plays in the evolution of
nucleotide diversity, and to identify recombination hot spots based on
patterns of nucleotide diversity. In recent years Di Rienzo has turned her
attention to population genetic studies of common disease and drug response.
Her study of CAPN10, a candidate gene for type 2 diabetes, and her subsequent
studies of CY3PA, a major drug metabolism gene, led Di Rienzo to posit a
general population genetic model for the evolution of human diseases - the
ancestral susceptibility model – which has quickly gained favor among
population geneticists and disease gene mappers alike. AnnaÕs study of the
CYP3A genes that metabolize more that 50% of prescribed drugs led to a
startling insight that brings population genetics to the forefront of medical
genetics. Focusing on a CYP3A variant that influences cortisol and
aldosterone metabolism, and consequently, the risk of salt sensitive
hypertension, Di Rienzo showed that the variant is strongly correlated with
distance from the equator. She then showed the same pattern in a variant of
the angiotensinogen gene that had previously been implicated in hypertension.
These observations strongly suggest that ancestral populations living in hot and
humid climates in Sub-Saharan Africa adapted to these environments by
retaining more salt and water, and that they adapted to colder climates by
reducing the rate of salt/water retention. |
CURRICULUM VITAE
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Professional
memberships Member, American Society of Human
Genetics Founding member, Editorial Board of Current
Pharmacogenomics Member, Editorial board of Human
Genomics (2003-present) Ad hoc academic editor, PLoS Biology, PLoS Genetics Member, Editorial board of Genetics (2007-present) Member, International Program Committee,
International Congress of Genetics (Berlin,
Germany, July 12-17, 2008) Ad
hoc reviewer Journals: American Journal of Human Genetics, American Journal of Physical
Anthropology, Human Molecular Genetics, Human Genetics, Molecular Biology and
Evolution, Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics, Pharmacogenomics Journal,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Genome Research,
Genetics, Trends in Genetics, Nature genetics, Nature Reviews Genetics,
Science
Grants: Science and Engineering Research Council (UK), Wellcome Trust (UK)
Member, NIGMS Working Group of the Human
Genetic Cell Repository at the Coriell Institute (2002-2005) Ad hoc member, Mammalian Genetics Study
Section, NIH - October 2003 Member, Special Review Panel
for applications submitted in response to a NHGRI RFA, "Additional
Genotyping for the Human Haplotype Map", NIH - August 6, 2004 Member, Special Review Panel
ZDK1-GRB-6 (J3) for applications submitted in response to PAR-04-078,
"Ancillary Studies to Major Ongoing NIDDK Clinical Research
Studies", NIH – January 13, 2005 Ad hoc member, ELSI-1 Study Section (NHGRI),
NIH, July 20, 2005 Member, ZRG1 F08 (20) L
Fellowship Study Section Genes, Genetics, Genomics, NIH – February 24-25, 2005; November
3-4, 2005; March 2-3, 2006; November 9-10. 2006 Member, external review
panel for research proposals submitted to the Older Americans Independence
Center at Johns Hopkins University - February, 2006; August, 2006 |
PRESENTATIONS
Invited
Speaker at scientific meetings
II Congress of the European
Society of Evolutionary Biology, Symposium on ÒEvolutionary Genetics of Human
PopulationsÓ. Lecture: ÒRapid early expansion of the human population
detected by mitochondrial DNA analysisÓ, Rome (Italy), September 25-29, 1989 XIII Congress of the International
Primatological Society, Symposium on ÒMolecular evolution of hominoidsÓ.
Lecture: ÒMitochondrial DNA and human evolutionÓ, Nagoya and Kyoto (Japan),
July 18-24, 1990 International Conference on
ÒGenetics, Linguistics and ArcheologyÓ. Plenary lecture: ÒEvolutionary
history of non-African populations as detected by mitochondrial DNA
sequencesÓ, Florence (Italy), May 20-24, 1991 8th International Congress of
Human Genetics. Plenary lecture: ÒMitochondrial DNA and human evolutionÓ,
Washington, DC, October 6-11, 1991 45th Annual Meeting of
the American Society of Human Genetics: ÒSTRP variation in human populations
and their patterns of somatic mutations in cancer patientsÓ, Minneapolis, MN,
October 24-28, 1995 29th Annual Meeting of
the European Society of Human Genetics. Plenary lecture: ÒMicrosatellite
variation and human evolutionÓ, Genova (Italy), May 17-20, 1997 2nd European Research
Conference on ÒInherited disorders and their genes in different European
populationsÓ. Plenary lecture: ÒComparison of linkage disequilibrium across
ethnically diverse populations and across genomic regionsÓ, Maratea (Italy),
February 6-11, 1998 99th Annual Meeting of
the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics: ÒTwo new
alleles in the promoter of the bilirubin UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1 (UGT1A1) geneÓ, New Orleans, LA, March
30- April 1, 1998 International Symposium on the
State-of-the-Art in Genetic Analysis "DNA2000". Lecture: "Sequence
variation and linkage disequilibrium in humans: the effects of natural
selection and population history", Boston, MA, June 1-3, 2000 Workshop
on "Genes, Peoples and Languages'', Institute for Pure and Applied
Mathematics (UCLA), Los Angeles, February 11 - 15, 2002 Workshop on ÒRelating genetic
variation to diseaseÓ, NHGRI, Bethesda, MD, August 8-9, 2002 Fifth Annual International
Conference on Drug Metabolism/Applied Pharmacokinetics, Merrimac, WI,
September 9-13, 2002 Third Scientific Meeting of the Pharmacogenetics
Research Network and Knowledge Base, St. Jude ChildrenÕs Research Hospital,
Memphis, TN, March 3, 2003 Annual Meeting for the Society for Molecular Biology and
Evolution, Newport Beach, CA, June 26-29, 2003 Gordon Research Conference on Molecular
Evolution, Ventura, CA, February 1-6, 2004 London Mathematical Society Durham
Symposium on Mathematical Genetics, Durham, UK, July 5-15, 2004 Twelfth Annual Meeting of the
Pacific Rim Association for Clinical Pharmacogenetics, Kyoto, Japan, April 17-18,
2005 65th Scientific
Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, San Diego, CA, June 10-14,
2005 55th Annual Meeting of
the American Society of Human Genetics: Education Session on ÒComparative
Genomics: Genomics Meets PhylogeneticsÓ, Salt Lake City, UT, October 26, 2005 55th
Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, Concurrent Platform
Session on ÒUnravelling Gordian Knots: Solutions to Complex DiseasesÓ,
October 27, 2005 Longevity Consortium Symposium,
San Diego, CA, November 28-30, 2005 Annual Meeting for the Society for
Molecular Biology and Evolution, Symposium on ÒEvolution of Disease
MutationsÓ, Tempe, AZ, May 24-28, 2006 14th North American
Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, Symposium
on ÒRace/ethnicity and Xenobiotic ResponseÓ, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, October
22-26, 2006 2nd Meeting of the Canadian
Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics, Toronto, Canada, April 16-17,
2007 Invited
seminars
Sept. 99: Department of
Biopharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA Jan. 00: Department of Molecular Biology
and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Feb. 00: Department of Human Genetics,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Mar. 00: Department of Biological
Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Fall 00: Department
of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Mar. 03: Department
of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA Mar. 03: Department of Molecular
and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Nov. 03: Department
of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Dec. 03: Department
of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Jul. 04: Department
of Cell Biology, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy Sept. 05: Genetics, Evolution and Pathology Unit, Institute of
Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, Porto,
Portugal Oct. 05:
Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy Mar. 06:
Benjamin Burrows Lung Immunology Seminar Series, Arizona Respiratory Center,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Sep. 06:
Molecular Evolution Seminar Series, NIH Perinatology Research Branch, NICHD,
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI |