Karlijn A.C. Meeks, Ph.D.

Karlijn A.C. Meeks is a Research Fellow at the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health (CRGGH). She received her Ph.D. in Public Health Epidemiology from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2017, and her Bachelor of Science (2010) and Master of Science (2012) in Nutrition & Health from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. During her Master’s, she received hands-on training in collecting and analyzing epidemiological data in diverse settings from the Synergos Institute (Windhoek, Namibia) and the UNICEF Eastern and Southern African Regional Office. Before transitioning to Research Fellow, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with CRGGH and prior to that with the University of Amsterdam. She had held Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar positions with Stanford University and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Dr. Meeks’ research interests include the epidemiology and genetic epidemiology of cardiometabolic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and dyslipidemia, in diverse populations. She uses innovative study designs to gain insight into the causes of these diseases in underrepresented populations, in particular African-ancestry populations. These innovative designs include comparing an African migrant group living in different countries to assess the role of national context as well as comparing African migrants with non-migrants still living in Africa to assess the role of migration. Her research uses classical epidemiologic as well as genome-wide association, epigenome-wide association, and Mendelian randomization approaches to add to the slowly growing literature on the prevalence, determinants, and underlying biology of cardiometabolic diseases in Africans. Dr. Meeks is a recipient of the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) with which she studies the interrelationships between lifestyle factors, cytokines, genetic variants, and epigenetic biomarkers in type 2 diabetes among African-ancestry populations.

Curriculum Vitae