Curtis Petersen, MPH

PhD student, jointly mentored by Brock Christensen and Ethan Berke

After a lot of experience working in molecular research I decided to try and understand how macro factors influenced the micro systems I had been studying and working with. In this endeavor I studied epidemiology as a masters student at The Dartmouth Institute where I focused on breast cancer. In 2014 I helped start a remote medical sensing group working on how we can use technology and big data to help people manage their health. This process spurred me into thinking about how we might be able to use this information to interpret epigenetic changes.

I am interested in examining next generation phenotyping, bridging the gap between the exposome and disease. I aim to link the huge amount of data that we are now continuously collecting from people to how it influences genetic expression. I think that our health systems can be greatly improved through advanced analytics of new data. I hope that this work will help influence how policy is shaped and how we measure quality healthcare.