I am an animal and human geneticist whose research revolves around the genetics of complex disease with an emphasis on hypertension, obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. My research focuses on understanding the genetic susceptibility to complex human diseases, with a focus on obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiometabolic disease. The approach involves integrating genetics, genomics, and other ‘omics’ approaches to identify genes and mechanisms leading to complex disease using rat models and human populations. I also study how genomic variation affects and is affected by environmental stimuli to influence susceptibility to cardiometabolic disease. I also serve as the PI of the Rat Genome Database (RGD) and a member of the Alliance of Genome Resources, whose goal is to provide a research platform that delivers the data and tools necessary for investigators to advance preclinical and translational research. This involves acquiring, validating and integrating comprehensive genetic, genomic, phenotype and disease datasets for human, rat, mouse and other mammals used as human disease models. RGD has disease portals dedicated to diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome, renal disease, and cardiovascular disease.