Catherine Schaefer
Papers
1
Total Citations
137
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About
Catherine Schaefer is a pioneering genetic epidemiologist whose work has fundamentally advanced our understanding of how genes, environment, and aging interact. Her research centers on large-scale population genomics, aging biology, and the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Schaefer’s most notable contribution is her leadership in establishing the Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health (RPGEH) and its landmark GERA cohort—a resource encompassing over 110,000 individuals. Her highly cited 2015 paper on automated telomere length measurement for 100,000 subjects (137 citations) provided a critical methodological breakthrough, enabling unprecedented large-scale studies of cellular aging. This work has been instrumental in linking telomere biology to age-related disease risk. Schaefer has also made seminal contributions to autism genetics, leading major genome-wide association studies that identified key risk loci. Her impact is reflected in tens of thousands of citations across her portfolio, and she has been recognized with numerous awards for translating genomic discovery into population health insights. For students and researchers, Schaefer exemplifies how rigorous cohort design and innovative measurement can unlock the genetics of human aging and disease.
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