PhD Student
BSc(Hons)
Email sam.gibbs@postgrad.otago.ac.nz
Christchurch Heart Institute
Department of Medicine
University of Otago, Christchurch
PO Box 4345
Christchurch
New Zealand
Sam’s project
Sam is a PhD student in the Omics and Pasifika Heart Health Laboratories at the Christchurch Heart Institute under the supervision of Associate Professor Anna Pilbrow, Dr Allamanda Fa’atoese, Associate Professor Katrina Poppe (University of Auckland) and Dr Nikki Earle (University of Auckland).
Sam is particularly interested in genetics and health equity. He is now working with the Pasifika Heart Study (lead by Dr Fa’atoese) to understand how genetics and environment interact to influence heart disease through an epigenetic process called DNA methylation.
Sam is also working with data from Pacific participants in the Multi Ethnic New Zealand Study of Acute Coronary Syndromes cohort (led by Professor Rob Doughty, Associate Professor Malcolm Legget and Dr Anna Rolleston) to validate his findings from the Pasifika Heart Study. Pacific Peoples are underrepresented in genetic research and Sam’s project seeks to challenge this inequity whilst identifying DNA methylation markers that could be used to improve heart health for Pacific Peoples.
Awards
Second prize HRSC Emerging Researchers Awards 2023
Affiliations
- Department of Medicine
- Christchurch Heart Institute