Dima L. Chaar, PhD, MHI, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. She received her doctorate in Epidemiologic Sciences from the University of Michigan, where she completed her dissertation titled “Socio-Contextual and Multi-Omic Associations with Cognitive Function and Structural Brain Measures in Older African Americans.� She also received her Masters of Health Informatics, with a certificate in Data Science, from the University of Michigan as well as her Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience & Behavior from Barnard College of Columbia University.

Dr. Chaar is interested in addressing questions of human health and disease through rigorous statistical analysis at the interface of genomics, statistics and computer science. She investigates the relationship between multi-omic layers of data (genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic data) and age-related chronic diseases. She works with large, multi-ethnic cohort studies to investigate a broad range of traits such as non-melanoma skin cancer, eye diseases, hernias, dementia and cerebrovascular diseases. She also studies how genetic/epigenetic determinants of health interact with non-genetic risk factors (e.g., environmental factors) to shape disease risk in vulnerable populations. Her prior research focused on how health information technology can ameliorate caregiver burden by analyzing Electronic Health Record data and conducting qualitative research methods.

1. Chaar, D. L., Li, Z., Shang, L., Ratliff, S. M., Mosley, T. H., Kardia, S. L. R., Zhao, W., Zhou, X., & Smith, J. A. (2024). Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association studies of cognitive function, white matter hyperintensity, and Alzheimer’s disease (p. 2024.01.03.24300768). medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.03.24300768

2. Chaar D.L., Nguyen K., Wang Y.Z., Ratliff, S.M., Mosley, T.H., Kardia, S.L.R., Smith, J.A., Zhao, W. SNP-by-CpG Site Interactions in ABCA7 Are Associated with Cognition in Older African Americans. Genes. 2022;13(11):2150. doi:10.3390/genes13112150

3. Chaar, D., Shin, J. Y., Vue, R., Kedroske, J., Mazzoli, A., Chappell, G., Hanauer, D. A., Barton, D., Hasset, A., & Choi, S. W. (2019). A Mobile Health App (Roadmap 2.0) for Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant: Qualitative Study on Family Caregivers' Perspectives and Design Considerations. JMIR MHealth and UHealth.

4. Fauer, A., Hoodin, F., Byrd, M., McDiarmid, L., Seyedsalehi, S., Churay, T. L., Sankaran, R., Munaco, A., Chaar, D., Chappell, G., Mohammed, S., Cohn, A., & Choi, S. W. (2018). The Role of Family Caregiving in Adult and Pediatric Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Using Health Information Technology to Advance Patient-Centered Care. Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, 24(3), S484–S485. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2017.12.498

5. Fauer, A. J., Hoodin, F., Lalonde, L., Errickson, J., Runaas, L., Churay, T., Seyedsalehi, S., Warfield, C., Chappell, G., Brookshire, K., Chaar, D., Shin, J. Y., Byrd, M., Magenau, J., Hanauer, D. A., & Choi, S. W. (2019). Impact of a health information technology tool addressing information needs of caregivers of adult and pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients. Supportive Care in Cancer, 27(6), 2103–2112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-018-4450-4

6. Kedroske, J., Koblick, S., Chaar, D., Mazzoli, A., O’Brien, M., Yahng, L., Vue, R., Chappell, G., Shin, J. Y., Hanauer, D. A., & Choi, S. W. (2019). Development of a National Caregiver Health Survey for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant: A Qualitative Study of Cognitive Interviews and Verbal Probing. JMIR Formative Research. https://doi.org/10.2196/17077

7. Kho, M., Wang, Y. Z., Chaar, D., Zhao, W., Ratliff, S. M., Mosley, T. H., ... & Smith, J. A. (2021). Accelerated DNA methylation age and medication use among African Americans. Aging (Albany NY), 13(11), 14604.

8. Shin, J. Y., Kedroske, J., Vue, R., Sankaran, R., Chaar, D., Churay, T., & Choi, S. W. (2018). Design considerations for family-centered health management: Preliminary findings with pediatric BMT patients. IDC 2018 - Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 593–598. https://doi.org/10.1145/3202185.3210781

9. Winters, J. J., Hardy, L. W., Sullivan, J. M., Powell, N. A., Qutaish, M., Nair, S., Heimann, J., Ghayoor, A., Polyak, D., Chaby, L., Rodriguez, E., Chaar, D., Oscherwitz, J. & Liberzon, I. (2021). Functional deficit in hippocampal activity during fear extinction recall in the single prolonged-stress model of PTSD in male rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 396, 112902.