Most traits (e.g. physical characteristics, disease states, behaviors) we observe in the natural world, whether they be in ourselves, other animals, plants, or microorganisms are the culmination of the products and signals of many genes and the interactions that may exist between genes. We call traits that are controlled by many genes, complex, polygenic, or quantitative. In addition, the environment and epigenetic factors can have significant roles in how genomes behave. My research is broadly interested in understanding the genomic, epigenomic, and environmental contributions in complex traits using several approaches including but not limited to genomics, medical records, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
l am a postdoctoral scientist in the Jason Moore Lab in the Department of Computational Biomedicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. My current research involves assessing the genetic and environmental factors associated with a diverse set of number of complex traits including opioid use disorder (OUD).
Philip J. Freda, Jr., Ph.D. 