Dr. Jessica Cooke Bailey’s research has focused on applying sophisticated statistical methods to understand the genetic basis of glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration in European Americans, including the Amish. Dr. Cooke Bailey is now expanding her work to harness the power of electronic health record (EHR) data coupled with genomics and other “omics” data to understand why African Americans are at increased risk for glaucoma compared with other populations. Understanding glaucoma risk factors will begin to address health disparities with the goal of informing treatment options.
Teaching Information
Courses Taught
Research Information
Research Interests
Moving beyond the knowledge we have gained from extensive genome-wide association studies and mega meta-analyses primarily in populations of European descent, the research of Team Cooke Bailey will integrate trans-ethnic genomic and health data to dissect the genomic and environmental aspects of glaucoma.
Our overall research goal is to better understand the complexity of POAG risk by assessing differences across ethnic groups to illuminate undetected genetic and non-genetic mediators. In addition we aim to:
- Characterize and quantify clinical, lifestyle, environmental, and genetic differences in POAG patients within and across ethnic groups to illuminate potential mediators of POAG risk.
- Understand how African ancestry mediates genomic risk for POAG.
- Characterize POAG in the Amish and study genetic factors related to this disease in order to elucidate novel variation potentially contributing to POAG and other POAG-relevant endophenotypes.
- Assimilate data across multiple entities to disentangle the genetics and genomic interactions that contribute to POAG, with the eventual goal to translate the knowledge gained into clinically relevant information.
Professional Memberships
Publications
Find Dr. Cooke Bailey's publications here.
Editorial roles:
- Frontiers in Genetics, Guest Topic Editor
Education
Residencies, Internships and Fellowships
Additional Information
Contributions to science:
- Applied meta-analysis and targeted, hypothesis-driven approaches, identifying nine primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) risk loci.
- Explored intraocular pressure, corneal thickness and optic disc morphology to elucidate genetic contributors to POAG-related quantitative traits and endophenotypes to better understand POAG genetic risk.
- Applied pathway-based analyses to GWA data, identifying several biological pathways and/or gene sets influencing POAG, highlighting novel mechanisms affecting disease susceptibility.
- Evaluated genome-wide data from the largest primary open-angle glaucoma case-control analysis to data at that time, identifying three primary open-angle glaucoma genetic risk loci.
- Evaluated exome data in one of the largest AMD studies to date, identifying rare and common variation, to better understand genetic contributors to AMD.
- Applied genetic risk scores to understand common, complex diseases including glaucoma and type 2 diabetes.
Student and mentee totals, over Case Western Reserve University career:
- Master’s: 1
- PhD: 1