Journal of Fertilization: In Vitro - IVF-Worldwide, Reproductive Medicine, Genetics & Stem Cell Biol
Open Access

Emmanuel Peprah

Biography

Emmanuel Peprah, Ph.D., is a senior staff of Project Management and Planning. Dr. Peprah works with program staff on various initiatives from the NIH Immediate Office of the Director. Prior to joining the Office of the Director, Dr. Peprah was a research fellow at the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health (CRGGH), National Human Genome Research Institute. At CRGGH, Dr. Peprah managed the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative. This initiative continues to cultivate African led genomic research, build capacity and infrastructure, while fostering intra-African scientific collaborations. Dr. Peprah’s dissertation research focused on Trypanosoma brucei brucei, a protozoan that causes African sleeping sickness, a highly neglected and recently resurgent tropical disease. During the course of his graduate training, Dr. Peprah developed an interest in the field of health disparities and decided to pursue postdoctoral training in the human genetics. Dr. Peprah was a postdoctoral fellow in the Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) program at Emory University, and conducted his research in the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University School of Medicine. As a FIRST Postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Peprah’s research used DNA samples collected from a large sub-Saharan African population to conduct genotyping and sequencing at the Fragile X Mental Retardation 1 (FMR1) locus. His research project focused on elucidating the haplotypic background of the mutation that causes Fragile X Syndrome in African populations. As a FIRST fellow, Dr. Peprah completed his pedagogical training at Spelman College, teaching cellular and molecular biology and also at Morehouse College teaching research methods to undergraduate students. Dr. Peprah has published several manuscripts in the fields of also parasitology and human genetics, with a focus on African populations. He is the first author of a paper describing the genetic diversity of the fragile X syndrome gene (FMR1) in a large Sub-Saharan West African population, one of few studies in this emerging field. 

Research Interest

Research goals are to focus on the genetics of neglected diseases in African and diasporic African ancestry populations including monogenic disorders that have not typically researched in these populations.