Mission

Core Faculty

Silke Schmidt, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Section of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine. She currently directs a large-scale genetic-epidemiologic study of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease) in US veterans, in collaboration with researchers at the Durham VA Medical Center. This study focuses on examining the role of gene-environment interaction in sporadic ALS. She is also interested in the evaluation and improvement of statistical methods for linkage and association analysis using simulated data, with an emphasis on methods to assess gene-environment interactions in complex late-onset disorders. In addition, she is involved in genetic studies of post-traumatic stress disorder in OIF/OEF veterans, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and rare thrombotic disorders. Dr. Schmidt was a CHG postdoctoral fellow from 1999-2001.

PhD, 1999, Department of Statistics, University of Dortmund, Germany

Selected Publications

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Fang F, Kwee LC, Allen KD, Umbach DM, Ye W, Watson M, Keller J, Oddone EZ, Schmidt S*, Kamel F*.(2010) Association between blood lead and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. American Journal of Epidemiology 171(10):1126-33. (*equal contributions). Pub Med ID 20406759.

Schmidt S, Kwee LC, Allen KD, Oddone EZ. (2010). Association of ALS with head injury, cigarette smoking and APOE genotypes. J Neurol Sci. 291(1-2):22-9.
Pub Med ID 20129626

Chiò A, Schymick JC, Restagno G, et al., Rothstein J, Schmidt S, Singleton A, Hardy J, Traynor BJ. (2009) A two-stage genome-wide association study of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Hum Mol Genet. 18:1524-1532.
Pub Med ID 19193627

Schmidt S, Allen KD, Loiacono VT, Norman B, Stanwyck CL, Nord KM, Williams CD, Kasarskis EJ, Kamel F, McGuire V, Nelson LM, Oddone EZ. Genes and Environmental Exposures in Veterans with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: the GENEVA study. Rationale, study design and demographic characteristics. Neuroepidemiology. 2008;30(3):191-204.
Pub Med ID 18421219.

Statistical Methods
Qin X, Hauser ER, Schmidt S. (2010) Ordered subset analysis for case-control studies. Genetic Epidemiology 2010 Jun 21. [Epub ahead of print]. Pub Med ID 20568256.

Schmidt S, Schmidt MA, Qin X, Martin ER, Hauser ER. Increased efficiency of case-control association analysis by using allele-sharing and covariate information. Hum Hered. 2008;65(3):154-65.
Pub Med ID 17934318.

Schmidt S, Schmidt MA, Qin X, Martin ER, Hauser ER. Linkage analysis with gene-environment interaction: model illustration and performance of ordered subset analysis. Genet Epidemiol. 2006 Jul;30(5):409-22.
Pub Med ID 16671105

Schmidt M, Hauser ER, Martin ER, Schmidt S. Extension of the SIMLA package for generating pedigrees with complex inheritance patterns: environmental covariates, gene-gene and gene-environment interaction. Stat Appl Genet Mol Biol. 2005;4:Article15.
Pub Med ID 16646832

Glaucoma
Liu Y, Liu W, Crooks KR, Schmidt S, Allingham RR, Hauser MA. No Evidence of Association of Heterozygous NTF4 Mutations in Patients with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma. American Journal of Human Genetics 86(3):498-9.

Liu Y, Schmidt S, Qin X, Gibson JR, Hutchins K, Santiago-Turla C, Wiggs JL, Budenz DL, Akafo S, Challa P, Herndon LW, Hauser MA, Allingham RR. Lack of Association between LOXL1 Variants and Primary Open-angle Glaucoma in Three Different Populations. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008 Apr 17.
Pub Med ID 18421074

Challa P, Schmidt S, Liu Y, Qin X, Vann RR, Gonzalez P, Allingham RR, Hauser MA. Analysis of LOXL1 polymorphisms in a United States population with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma. Mol Vis. 2008 Jan 29;14:146-9.
Pub Med ID 18334928

Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Montgomery MP, Kamel F, et al., Scott WK*, Schmidt S*. Overall diet quality and age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmic Epidemiology 17(1):58-65.

Schmidt S, Hauser MA, Scott WK, Postel EA, Agarwal A, Gallins P, Wong F, Chen YS, Spencer K, Schnetz-Boutaud N, Haines JL, Pericak-Vance MA. Cigarette smoking strongly modifies the association of LOC387715 and age-related macular degeneration. Am J Hum Genet. 2006 May;78(5):852-64.
Pub Med ID 16642439

Schmidt S, Haines JL, Postel EA, Agarwal A, Kwan SY, Gilbert JR, Pericak-Vance MA, Scott WK. Joint effects of smoking history and APOE genotypes in age-related macular degeneration. Mol Vis. 2005 Nov 4;11:941-9.
Pub Med ID 16288198

Haines JL, Hauser MA, Schmidt S, Scott WK, Olson LM, Gallins P, Spencer KL, Kwan SY, Noureddine M, Gilbert JR, Schnetz-Boutaud N, Agarwal A, Postel EA, Pericak-Vance MA. Complement factor H variant increases the risk of age-related macular degeneration. Science 2005 308: 419-421.
Pub Med ID 15761120

Multiple Sclerosis
Gregory SG, Schmidt S, Seth P, Oksenberg JR, Hart J, Prokop A, Caillier SJ, Ban M, Goris A, Barcellos LF, Lincoln R, McCauley JL, Sawcer SJ, Compston DA, Dubois B, Hauser SL, Garcia-Blanco MA, Pericak-Vance MA, Haines JL; Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Group. Interleukin 7 receptor alpha chain (IL7R) shows allelic and functional association with multiple sclerosis. Nat Genet. 2007 Sep;39(9):1083-91.
Pub Med ID 17660817

Schmidt S, Pericak-Vance MA, Sawcer S, Barcellos LF, Hart J, Sims J, Prokop AM, van der Walt J, DeLoa C, Lincoln RR, Oksenberg JR, Compston A, Hauser SL, Haines JL, Gregory SG; Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Group. Allelic association of sequence variants in the herpes virus entry mediator-B gene (PVRL2) with the severity of multiple sclerosis. Genes Immun. 2006 Jul;7(5):384-92.
Pub Med ID 16738668

For a complete list of Dr. Schmidt's publications, click here.

Contact:
Center for Human Genetics
DUMC Box 3445
Durham, NC 27710
Phone: 1-919-684-0624
Fax: 1-919-684-0925
E-mail: silke.schmidt@duke.edu

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