Dr Fornage holds a joint appointment in the Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas Health School of Public Health. Her research spans basic science investigation to broad scale human genomics to understand the genetic basis of stroke and cardiovascular disease using molecular genetics and statistical approaches in both animal models and humans. Current studies aim to identify genes and gene pathways contributing to susceptibility to brain vascular injury in the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) and to examine whether the corresponding human genes influence cardiovascular disease and stroke risk in population cohorts.