Awards

Titled Professor - 2025

James A. Caplin Professor of Pulmonary Research

About Tesfaye Baye Mersha

Dr. Mersha is the James A. Caplin Professor of Pulmonary Medicine and Director of Precision Pulmonary Medicine Research Program at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He also leads the Population Genetics, Ancestry, and Bioinformatics (pGAB) Laboratory. His current research focuses on understanding the complex interplay of environmental exposures, genomics, ancestry, and intra/inter-multi-omics integration and interactions in health and diseases, particularly allergic disorders. Much of his research is at the intersection of basic, clinical, and translational research, where he utilizes cross-disciplinary approaches to dissect how biological predisposition and socio-environmental exposures interact to shape racial disparities in asthma and other complex disorders. His laboratory combines genetic ancestry, bioinformatics, statistical and machine learning algorithms, and multi-omics approaches to unravel genetic and non-genetic factors that contribute to these complex diseases in human populations. This comprehensive multi-omics view enables more precise patient stratification. Ultimately, this strategy advances disease management and improves patient outcomes by allowing for the identification of distinct endotypes, which have specific molecular and biological profiles, and the development of personalized treatment strategies.

Dr. Mersha is a strong advocate for reimagining how healthcare can benefit everyone in the era of precision medicine, specifically addressing gaps in genomic research through the inclusion of populations that are representative of the global community. As part of his global outreach, he co-founded the Alliance for Research, Innovation, and Education (AfRIE, https://afrie.org/), an international team of volunteer educators, researchers, and innovators. Through AfRIE, he initiated, led, and established the first Public Health Genomics (PHG) Graduate Program at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. These efforts have not only created infrastructure and a genomics workforce but also highlighted the importance of including representative populations in genomic studies to achieve universal utility in genomic medicine.

Dr. Mersha has received multiple awards, including the Faculty Research and Advocacy Achievement Award from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the Keystone Symposia Early Career Investigator Award. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed articles, and his research is continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).