Bradley Todd Webb, PhD, is an omics research scientist and principal investigator with a research focus in understanding the architecture of complex human diseases and traits. By applying statistical genetics, bioinformatics, and computational genomic tools and analyses, his investigations seek to (1) discover specific genes and biomarkers associated with disease risk, (2) understand the contribution of individual and aggregated genetic variants, (3) model the interplay of genetic and environmental influences, (4) integrate cross-omics outcomes in complex biological systems, and (5) bridge the gap between discovery science and translational studies.
Dr. Webb’s lab works to advance analytic methodologies for studying complex disease, including adapting machine learning methods for biobank scale data exhibiting extensive patterns of non-random missingness. He leads a U.S. Department of Defense-funded effort to leverage multi-omic data integration to accelerate the process of identifying and prioritizing compounds for drug repurposing studies. Dr. Webb is also a principal investigator on two National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded studies of alcohol use disorder and major depression and has served as a co-investigator on more than 10 current or previously funded NIH projects. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and contributed to more than 150 consortium publications, which have been cited over 32,000 times.
With more than 20 years of experience in the field of human statistical genetics, Dr. Webb has partnered on large-scale collaborative projects with investigators from around the world to design, implement, and supervise studies of common and rare genetic variation using genome-wide association (GWAS), exome (WES), and genome (WGS) sequencing studies. While his work has primarily focused on psychiatric, mental health, and addiction related outcomes (e.g., schizophrenia, major depression, and alcohol use disorder), he also has contributed to research across a wide range of human conditions including obesity, pre-term birth, pharmacogenetics, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), atopy, deafness, epilepsy, craniosynostosis, and rare syndromes (Wolfram, Usher, and Crouzon).