Digna R. Velez Edwards, PhD, MS

Dr. Digna R. Velez Edwards is a genetic epidemiologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Velez Edwards received her Ph.D. in Human Genetics (2008) and Masters in Applied Statistics at Vanderbilt University (2007) with subsequent postdoctoral training in human genetics at the University of Miami (2008-2009). She has established a research program focused on genetic and environment risk factors associated with women's health and reproductive outcomes. Since the start of her faculty appointment Dr. Velez Edwards has developed and coordinated a repository of biospecimens from participants in the Right from the Start pregnancy cohort to be used for genetic epidemiology studies examining reproductive health complications and risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, which currently has ~2,500 DNA samples. She has several ongoing research projects utilizing this resource, as well as large clinical databases that link clinical information to DNA (the BioVU DNA Repository). These studies focus on understanding the racial and/or ethnic disparities in genetic risk for several complex diseases including preterm birth, miscarriage, uterine fibroids, and pelvic organ prolapse.