Michael C. Mahaney, PhD

Research Focus

Dr. Mahaney has a broad educational background in genetics, human physiological and anatomical variation, and comparative primate biology and evolution, as well as 40 years of post-graduate research experience in quantitative biology and statistical genetics. His research since the late 1980s has focused on the genetics of complex traits related to human growth, development, aging, and variation in susceptibility, severity, and progression of common diseases – especially cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis – in humans and nonhuman primates. A recurring interest has been the identification and characterization of pleiotropic networks of disease risk factors, i.e., multiple traits affected by the same gene or set of genes.

More recent efforts have included participation in large studies of 1) the effects of a high cholesterol, high-fat diet on atherosclerosis risk factors and cardiovascular disease endpoints in pedigreed baboons; 2) genetic effects on cardiovascular risk factors in large Mexican American families in San Antonio, Texas; and 3) the effects of genes on co-variation between biomarkers of calcification and bone quality phenotypes in members of the Jirel population of eastern Nepal. 4) Dr. Mahaney also has “kept his hand in” hominid evolutionary biology, collaborating with colleagues in biological anthropology in the quantitative genetics of developmental variation in the dentition and craniofacial complex of nonhuman primates.

Currently, Dr. Mahaney is the Coordinator of the Pilot Studies Program for the Rio Grande Valley Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research here at the UTRGV and a member of the Research Education Core of the South Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, a collaborative effort with the Glean Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s & Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio.