Cinnamon Bloss, PhD, gave a presentation in the HudsonAlpha auditorium on March 9 for the research seminar series. Bloss is an assistant professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine and Public Health, Division of Health Policy, at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She also has an adjunct appointment as a policy analyst at the J. Craig Venter Institute and is a licensed clinical psychologist. Her current research focuses on the individual and societal impacts of emerging biomedical technologies.
With a background in clinical psychology, statistical genetics, genomic medicine, biomedical ethics and health policy, Bloss has conducted both candidate gene and genome-wide association studies of neurocognitive phenotypes, as well as empirical work on biomedical ethics topics. Major projects have included studies focused on direct-to-consumer genomics, clinical genome sequencing, biosensing and mobile health and personal health big data. Prior to joining UCSD, Bloss was the director of social sciences and bioethics at the Scripps Translational Science Institute. She has previously been the PI of a R21 grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute’s (NHGRI) Ethical Legal and Social Issues program to study consumer psychological and behavioral response to direct-to-consumer genomic testing. From this work, she published a seminal article in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented invited testimony based on the findings before a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel to inform consumer genomics policy. More recently, Bloss was awarded an R01, also from the NHGRI, to pursue the development of tools to understand privacy preferences of individuals who are exposed to health big data technologies.
Bloss has published more than 60 papers and mentored over 25 students, ranging in level from high school to post-doctoral fellow. She has also worked with children, adults and families with a wide range of clinical issues.
Howard Jacob, PhD, hosted the seminar.
The next HudsonAlpha Research Seminar will be Wednesday, March 15, featuring John Schimenti, PhD, Director of the Center for Vertebrate Genomics in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
More information on HudsonAlpha Research Seminars, including an upcoming schedule, can be found at hudsonalpha.org/seminars.
