She earned her PhD in epidemiology, with a minor in genetics, at Stanford University School of Medicine. She was a senior scientist at the Stanford Human Genome Center, leading a group conducting candidate gene research on complex traits. She completed her postdoctoral training in bioethics at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics in the Center for Research on Integration of Genetics and Ethics. She is the recipient of a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award from the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH on "Ethical and Social Issues in the Study of the Genetics of Complex Traits."
She conducts research on ethical issues in genetic research on complex traits, particularly complex traits in children. Current projects include research on causal models in genetic research on autism and the interactions between researchers and advocacy groups in genetic research on complex traits, focusing on the field of autism and characterizing the perspectives of parents and adolescents across different contexts of pediatric genetic research about ethical and social issues, including parental permission and informed consent, return of results to families, sharing of samples and data, the meanings of genetic data and the potential benefits and risk. In addition, she is collaborating with researchers at the Center for Clinical Genomics to proactively identify and address ethical and social issues in ongoing complex disease research.
Read her curriculum vitae (CV) (PDF).
Read more about Holly K. Tabor, PhD.