Samantha Manna is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Manna graduated with her PhD from the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in 2016. She remained in the department to complete postdoctoral work, funded by two consecutive NIH T32 training awards in Cancer and Skin Biology and Endocrinology. After completing her postdoctoral work, she joined the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Dental Medicine faculty as an Assistant Professor in the summer of 2020. She is a member of the Center for Craniofacial and Dental Genetics, Pittsburgh Center for Interdisciplinary Bone and Mineral Research, TOPMed, and the Obesity, Lifestyle, and Genetic Adaptations (OLaGA, in Samoan) study group. Dr. Manna has expertise in the genetics of complex traits, transcriptomics, whole-genome, and whole-exome sequencing, and genome-wide association studies. Her lab focuses on characterizing the function of CREBRF in cellular metabolism and on gene expression, as well as identifying the mechanism(s) by which variation in this gene is associated with anthropometric phenotypes, such as height and body mass index (BMI). Dr. Manna is excited to extend her research to Space Medicine and learn how the unique conditions of space influence gene function.
