Marazita Lab

About Marazita Lab

Dr. Marazita’s research program applies the techniques of genomics, statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology to multiple complex human traits including craniofacial birth defects, oral health traits, normal facial development, behavioral traits, premature birth, and others.  She has had many years of experience in research with more than 480 publications to date, and continuous NIH funding as a PD/PI (primarily in craniofacial and dental genetics) since 1985.  The over-riding themes of her research program to date include:  emphasis on dental/oral/craniofacial primary phenotypes, emphasis on disparities in oral health and disease, emphasis on children’s health conditions (e.g. dental caries and birth defects) in the context of their families, and emphasis on deep phenotyping to better understand our genetic findings.

Dr. Marazita’s major research contributions include ground-breaking studies of genetics/genomics and phenotypes in nonsyndromic orofacial cleft (OFC) families from many ethnicities; pioneering genetic studies of oral and dental diseases; and multidisciplinary studies of oral health disparities incorporating the metagenome, host genome, behaviors, and environment.   My studies have led to collaborations with colleagues across the USA, and in more than 15 other countries, representing all continents except Antarctica. 

Latest News

• Dr. Mary Marazita has reached a significant career milestone of 500 scholarly publications. Her first paper was published in 1982 during her Post-Doc studies. Melnick M, Jaskol T, Marazita ML. Localization of H2K in developing mouse palates using monoclonal antibody.  Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology 70: 4560, 1982. [PMID: 6754848].
• Her 500th Paper: Yuan M, Goovaerts S, Hoskens H, Richmond S, Walsh S, Shriver MD, Shaffer JR, Marazita ML, Weinberg SM, Peeters H, Claes P. Data-driven trait heritability-based extraction of human facial phenotypes. In2023 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM) 2023 Dec 5 (pp. 312-319). IEEE.

Over the course of 42 years, that is an average of 11.9 papers per year!

Lab Team

• Joel Anderton, Database Manager
• Wendy Fellows-Mayle, PhD, Research Regulatory Admin
• MyoungKeun Lee, Biostatistician
• Jennifer Maurer, Senior Database manager
• Toby McHenry, Analyst
• Nandita Mukhopadhyay, PhD, Programmer, Anaylst

Projects

• Cleft Projects:
  1. Association study of orofacial cleft risk variants across All of Us cancer diagnoses
  2. Differences between the sexes among genetic variants affected orofacial cleft birth defect risk
  3. Discovering the genetic basis of cleft palate
  4. Enhanced data from orofacial cleft trios to strengthen the Gabriella Miller Kids First discovery goals
  5. Epigenomics of orofacial clefts
  6. Genetics of orofacial clefts, sub-types, and subclinical phenotypes
  7. Genomic and functional analysis of IRF6 target genes in orofacial cleft pathogenesis
  8. Genomics of orofacial clefts in the Philippines
  9. Genomic risk variants in orofacial clefting: discovery and functional validation
  10. Integration of polygenic risk and facial morphometrics to decipher the genetic susceptibility of orofacial clefting
  11. Investigating the role of genes, maternal exposures, and interactions in orofacial clefts
  12. Kids First: Genomics of isolated cleft lip
  13. Kids First: Genomics of orofacial cleft birth defects in families from Puerto Rico, Central and South America
• Dental Health/Caries:
  1. Genetic markers of caries risk in diverse underserved children
  2. Pediatric adverse event risk reduction for high risk medications in children and adolescents: Improving pediatric patient safety in dental practices
  3. Predicting caries risk in underserved children, from toddlers to the school-age years, in primary healthcare settings
• Facial Morphology:
  1. The genetic architecture of human facial morphology

Publications

• Marazita ML – Search Results – PubMed (nih.gov)
• mary marazita – Google Scholar

Contact Info & Location

Bridgeside Point I, Suite 400