Assistant Professor
Tina Lasisi’s global health focus centers on studying hair and pigmentation to understand how population structure shapes the genetic architecture of complex traits, and how hair can serve as a non-invasive biomarker of systemic biology. This perspective highlights the limitations and biases in current genomic and biomedical frameworks when populations are not fully represented. Her interests in global health equity align with the Center’s themes of strengthening systems for health, addressing social and environmental determinants of health, and developing technical solutions. Lasisi’s research integrates statistical genetics, population genomics, and multi-omics pipelines to investigate the genetic architecture of hair and pigmentation, while developing hair-based assays as biomarkers of stress, aging, and hormonal status. She collaborates across multiple regions to produce datasets that extend beyond Eurocentric references and enable broader, systems-level understanding of human biology.
