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Professional Biography

Dr. Joanne Cole (she/her) is a complex trait human geneticist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus. Her research focuses on using large-scale genomics and GWAS data as a tool to elucidate diet’s role in the body and human health, with a focus on cardiometabolic disease. Dr. Cole received her Ph.D. in 2016 in the Human Medical Genetics and Genomics Program at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Anschutz, studying the genetic determinants of normal human facial shape and body size in children and adolescents from Tanzania. She conducted her postdoctoral training on the genetics of diabetic kidney disease as a lead analyst in the ‘Genetics of Nephropathy – an International Effort’ (GENIE) consortium at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital. In 2019 she was promoted to Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Combining her interests in complex human phenotypes and metabolic disease, she built her research program funded by the American Diabetes Association and an NIDDK K99/R00 Award on the biological basis of dietary intake, which she is expanding at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä. On top of her research, Dr. Cole has held leadership positions at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä and the Broad Institute, co-founded the Broad Sustainability Group, and has engaged in teaching and outreach throughout her career. Outside work, you can find her cooking, trying a new restaurant or brewery, or playing volleyball.

Research Interests

My research group uses large-scale genomics as a tool to learn more about diet's role in the body and human health, with a focus on cardiometabolic disease. Our three primary and related goals are to: 1) improve dietary phenotypes derived from diet questionnaires, 2) elucidate the underlying environmental and biological mechanisms influencing dietary intake and food metabolism, and 3) understand diet's role in human health through epidemiological approaches and human studies. See jcolelab.com for more info.