He received the award for his pioneering work focusing on leveraging genetic information to enhance health care outcomes.

The analysis of genetic sequencing data from more than 34,000 people over a 17-year period by researchers at VUMC was published in eClinicalMedicine.

Even after comprehensive testing, about 30% of children with short stature — height below the third percentile on a growth chart — do not have a definitive diagnosis, leading to extended surveillance, testing and anxiety.

The research is another step toward development of targeted therapies aimed at reducing the incidence and medical burden of this common condition.

With funding from the newly established Sarah Kyle Anorexia Nervosa Research Foundation, the researchers hope to identify biomarkers that will point to novel targets for prevention and treatment.

Evaluating how genetic risk interacts with environmental risk factors such as sexual trauma is important for understanding how mental illness develops and identifying high-risk groups for early intervention.

VUMC researchers have developed a genetic method that clusters distantly related people to find rare variants that were present in a common ancestor.