Our department is dedicated to graduate training in human genetics research (including molecular, statistical, and bioinformatics research), public health genetics, and genetic counseling.
News
Pitt Public Health faculty publish genetic counseling handbook
Michael Deem, PhD, and Robin Grubs, PhD, associate professors of human genetics, served as editors for The Oxford Handbook of Genetic Counseling, a comprehensive new resource for the field. Released in October 2025, the handbook brings together decades of scholarship and practice, spanning the history of genetic counseling, its growth within health care systems and the ethical and social questions shaping its future.
Science meets origami: Kaveh Moradi finds focus beyond the lab
Kaveh Moradi, PhD, knows that structure is everything. In his research, when myelin breaks down, the brain loses its ability to communicate—driving diseases like multiple sclerosis. At his desk, a single misplaced fold can collapse a paper figure. As a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Moradi studies the mechanisms behind demyelination. Outside of the lab, he folds origami, a craft requiring the same precision. Lately, it has also become a way to cope with the uncertainty of having family in Iran.
A public health professor is bringing the National Bioethics Bowl to Pitt
“...bioethics topics are emerging as quickly as technology is developing, and they’re things that we really need to grapple with,” said Cindy McCarthy, an associate professor in the School of Public Health and this year’s National Bioethics Bowl organizer. “They’re difficult conversations, they’re complex, they’re multifaceted.”