Molly Hall, PhD, M.S.
- Assistant Professor
- Dr. Frances Keesler Graham Early Career Professor
College of Agricultural Sciences
Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
512A Wartik Lab
University Park, PA 16802
- Email mah546@psu.edu
- Office 814-865-0794
Areas of Expertise
- Genomics
- Human Genetics
- Exposome
- Genetic Interactions (Epistasis)
- Gene-Environment Interactions
- Complex Disease
- Precision Medicine
- Biomedical Informatics
- Metabolomics
Websites
Education
- Postdoctoral Fellowship - University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
- PhD - Penn State University, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- MS - Columbia University, Neuroscience & Education
- BS - Cornell University, Human Development
Research:
The Hall Lab is focused on building tools to elucidate the complex genetic and environmental underpinnings of human disease. We integrate genetic (genotype, sequence, structural variation) and exposure (derived from surveys and metabolomics methods) big data to predict disease status. The ultimate goals of this work are to 1) enrich our understanding of the complex mechanisms that lead to common disease and 2) provide methods to identify those most at risk of disease (based on their genetic and exposure backgrounds) in a clinical setting.
Select Publications:
Lucas AM, Palmiero NE, McGuigan J, Passero K, Zhou J, Orie D, Ritchie MD and Hall MA (2019) CLARITE Facilitates the Quality Control and Analysis Process for EWAS of Metabolic-Related Traits. Front. Genet. 10:1240. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2019.01240
Hall MA, Wallace J, Lucas A, et al. (2017) PLATO software provides analytic framework for investigating complexity beyond genome-wide association studies. Nature Communications: 8 1167
Hall MA, Moore JH, Ritchie MD (2016) Embracing complex associations in common traits: Critical considerations for precision medicine. Trends in Genetics: 32, 470-484
Hall MA, Verma SS, Wallace J, Lucas A, et al. (2015) Biology-driven gene-gene interaction analysis of age-related cataract in the eMERGE Network. Genetic Epidemiology: 39 376-384
Hall MA, Verma A, Brown-Gentry KD, Goodloe R, et al. (2014) Detection of pleiotropy through and phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) of epidemiologic data as part of the Environmental Architecture for Genes Linked to Environment (EAGLE) study. PLoS Genetics: 10.
Hall MA, Dudek SM, Goodloe R, Crawford DC, Pendergrass SA, et al. (2014) Environment-wide association study (EWAS) for type 2 diabetes in the Marshfield Personalized Medicine Research Project Biobank. Pac Symp Biocomput: 200-211
Publications
Investigation of gene-gene interactions in cardiac traits and serum fatty acid levels in the LURIC Health Study
PloS one, Zhou, Jiayan, Passero, Kristin, Palmiero, Nicole E., Müller-Myhsok, Bertram, Kleber, Marcus E., Maerz, Winfried, Hall, Molly A., 2020
CLARITE Facilitates the Quality Control and Analysis Process for EWAS of Metabolic-Related Traits
Frontiers in Genetics, Lucas, Anastasia M., Palmiero, Nicole E., McGuigan, John, Passero, Kristin, Zhou, Jiayan, Orie, Deven, Ritchie, Marylyn D., Hall, Molly A., 2019
Leveraging putative enhancer-promoter interactions to investigate two-way epistasis in type 2 diabetes GWAS
Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, Manduchi, E, Chesi, A, Hall, Molly, Grant, SFA, Moore, J, 2018
PLATO software provides analytic framework for investigating complexity beyond genome-wide association studies
Nature communications, Hall, Molly A., Wallace, John, Lucas, Anastasia, Kim, Dokyoon, Basile, Anna O., Verma, Shefali S., McCarty, Cathy A., Brilliant, Murray H., Peissig, Peggy L., Kitchner, Terrie E., Verma, Anurag, Pendergrass, Sarah A., Dudek, Scott M., Moore, Jason H., Ritchie, Marylyn D., 2017
The joint effect of air pollution exposure and copy number variation on risk for autism
Autism Research, Kim, Dokyoon, Volk, Heather, Girirajan, Santhosh, Pendergrass, Sarah, Hall, Molly, Verma, Shefali S., Schmidt, Rebecca J., Hansen, Robin L., Ghosh, Debashis, Ludena-Rodriguez, Yunin, Kim, Kyoungmi, Ritchie, Marylyn Deriggi, Hertz-Picciotto, Irva, Selleck, Scott Brian, 2017
Discovery and replication of SNP-SNP interactions for quantitative lipid traits in over 60,000 individuals
BioData Mining, Holzinger, Emily R., Verma, Shefali S., Moore, Carrie B., Hall, Molly, De, Rishika, Gilbert-Diamond, Diane, Lanktree, Matthew B., Pankratz, Nathan, Amuzu, Antoinette, Burt, Amber, Dale, Caroline, Dudek, Scott, Furlong, Clement E., Gaunt, Tom R., Kim, Daniel Seung, Riess, Helene, Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh, Tragante, Vinicius, Van Iperen, Erik P.A., Brautbar, Ariel, Carrell, David S., Crosslin, David R., Jarvik, Gail P., Kuivaniemi, Helena, Kullo, Iftikhar J., Larson, Eric B., Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J., Tromp, Gerard, Baumert, Jens, Cruickshanks, Karen J., Farrall, Martin, Hingorani, Aroon D., Hovingh, G. K., Kleber, Marcus E., Klein, Barbara E., Klein, Ronald, Koenig, Wolfgang, Lange, Leslie A., MOrz, Winfried, North, Kari E., Charlotte Onland-Moret, N., Reiner, Alex P., Talmud, Philippa J., Van Der Schouw, Yvonne T., Wilson, James G., Kivimaki, Mika, Kumari, Meena, Moore, Jason H., Drenos, Fotios, Asselbergs, Folkert W., Keating, Brendan J., Ritchie, Marylyn D., 2017
Identifying gene–gene interactions that are highly associated with four quantitative lipid traits across multiple cohorts
Human genetics, De, Rishika, Verma, Shefali S., Holzinger, Emily, Hall, Molly, Burt, Amber, Carrell, David S., Crosslin, David R., Jarvik, Gail P., Kuivaniemi, Helena, Kullo, Iftikhar J., Lange, Leslie A., Lanktree, Matthew B., Larson, Eric B., North, Kari E., Reiner, Alex P., Tragante, Vinicius, Tromp, Gerard, Wilson, James G., Asselbergs, Folkert W., Drenos, Fotios, Moore, Jason H., Ritchie, Marylyn D., Keating, Brendan, Gilbert-Diamond, Diane, 2017
Informatics and Data Analytics to Support Exposome-Based Discovery for Public Health
ANNUAL REVIEW OF PUBLIC HEALTH, VOL 38, Manrai, Arjun, Cui, Yuxia, Bushel, Pierre, Hall, Molly, Karakitsios, Spyros, Mattingly, Carolyn, Ritchie, Marylyn, Schmitt, Charles, Sarigiannis, Denis, Thomas, Duncan, Wishart, David, Balshaw, David, Patel, Chirag, 2017
Epistatic Gene-Based Interaction Analyses for Glaucoma in eMERGE and NEIGHBOR Consortium
PLoS genetics, Verma, Shefali Setia, Cooke Bailey, Jessica N., Lucas, Anastasia, Bradford, Yuki, Linneman, James G., Hauser, Michael A., Pasquale, Louis R., Peissig, Peggy L., Brilliant, Murray H., McCarty, Catherine A., Haines, Jonathan L., Wiggs, Janey L., Vrabec, Tamara R., Tromp, Gerard, Ritchie, Marylyn D., Bickel, Jonathan, Chandler, Ariel, Holm, Ingrid, Kohane, Isaac, Manzi, Shannon, Markianos, Kyriacos, Palmer, Nathan, Perry, Cassandra, Savova, Guergana, Wolf, Wendy, Wong Kong, Sek, Antommaria, Armand, Cobb, Beth, Harley, John, Hutton, John, Lingren, Todd, Lynch, John, Marsolo, Keith, Myers, Melanie, Namjou, Bahram, Prows, Cindy, Solti, Imre, Vinks, Sander, Wagner, Michael, Abrams, Debbie, Almoguera, Berta, Chiavacci, Rosetta, Connolly, John, Devoto, Marcella, Hakonarson, Hakon, Keating, Brendan, Kim, Cecilia, Mentch, Frank, Qui, Haijun, Sleiman, Patrick, 2016
Embracing Complex Associations in Common Traits: Critical Considerations for Precision Medicine
TRENDS IN GENETICS, Hall, Molly, Moore, Jason, Ritchie, Marylyn, 2016
Identifying gene-gene interactions that are highly associated with Body Mass Index using Quantitative Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (QMDR)
BioData Mining, De, Rishika, Verma, Shefali S., Drenos, Fotios, Holzinger, Emily R., Holmes, Michael V., Hall, Molly A., Crosslin, David R., Carrell, David S., Hakonarson, Hakon, Jarvik, Gail, Larson, Eric, Pacheco, Jennifer A., Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J., Moore, Carrie B., Asselbergs, Folkert W., Moore, Jason H., Ritchie, Marylyn D., Keating, Brendan J., Gilbert-Diamond, Diane, 2015
Biology-Driven Gene-Gene Interaction Analysis of Age-Related Cataract in the eMERGE Network
Genetic Epidemiology, Hall, Molly, Verma, Shefali S., Wallace, John, Lucas, Anastasia, Berg, Richard L., Connolly, John, Crawford, Dana C., Crosslin, David R., de Andrade, Mariza, Doheny, Kimberly F., Haines, Jonathan L., Harley, John B., Jarvik, Gail P., Kitchner, Terrie, Kuivaniemi, Helena, Larson, Eric B., Carrell, David S., Tromp, Gerard, Vrabec, Tamara R., Pendergrass, Sarah A., Mccarty, Catherine A., Ritchie, Marylyn Deriggi, 2015
Next-generation analysis of cataracts
Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing. Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, Pendergrass, Sarah A., Verma, Shefali S., Hall, Molly A., Holzinger, Emily R., Moore, Carrie B., Wallace, John R., Dudek, Scott M., Huggins, Wayne, Kitchner, Terrie, Waudby, Carol, Berg, Richard, Mccarty, Catherine A., Ritchie, Marylyn D., 2015
Phenome-Wide Association Studies
Human Heredity, Pendergrass, Sarah A., Verma, Anurag, Okula, Anna, Hall, Molly, Crawford, Dana C., Ritchie, Marylyn Deriggi, 2015
Session Introduction: Characterizing the the importance of environmental exposures, interactions between the environment and genetic architecture, and genetic interactions
Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, Hall, Molly, Verma, S, Wall, D, Moore, J, Keating, B, Campbell, D, Gibson, G, Asselbergs, F, Pendergrass, S, 2015
Electronic medical records and genomics (eMERGE) network exploration in cataract
Molecular vision, Ritchie, Marylyn D., Verma, Shefali S., Hall, Molly A., Goodloe, Robert J., Berg, Richard L., Carrell, Dave S., Carlson, Christopher S., Chen, Lin, Crosslin, David R., Denny, Joshua C., Jarvik, Gail, Li, Rongling, Linneman, James G., Pathak, Jyoti, Peissig, Peggy, Rasmussen, Luke V., Ramirez, Andrea H., Wang, Xiaoming, Wilke, Russell A., Wolf, Wendy A., Torstenson, Eric S., Turner, Stephen D., McCarty, Catherine A., 2014
Detection of Pleiotropy through a Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) of Epidemiologic Data as Part of the Environmental Architecture for Genes Linked to Environment (EAGLE) Study
PLoS Genetics, Hall, Molly, Verma, Anurag, Brown-Gentry, Kristin D., Goodloe, Robert, Boston, Jonathan, Wilson, Sarah, McClellan, Bob, Sutcliffe, Cara, Dilks, Holly H., Gillani, Nila B., Jin, Hailing, Mayo, Ping, Allen, Melissa, Schnetz-Boutaud, Nathalie, Crawford, Dana C., Ritchie, Marylyn Deriggi, Pendergrass, Sarah A., 2014
Environment-wide association study (EWAS) for type 2 diabetes in the Marshfield Personalized Medicine Research Project Biobank
Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, Hall, Molly, Dudek, S, Goodloe, R, Crawford, D, Pendergrass, S, Peissig, P, Brilliant, M, McCarty, C, Ritchie, M, 2014
Next-generation analysis of cataracts: determining knowledge driven gene-gene interactions using Biofilter, and gene-environment interactions using the PhenX Toolkit
Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, Pendergrass, S, Verma, S, Hall, Molly, Holzinger, E, Moore, C, Wallace, J, Dudek, S, Huggins, W, Kitchner, T, Waudby, C, Berg, R, McCarty, C, Ritchie, M, 2013