Gladstone’s Catherine Tcheandjieu Gueliatcha Named an ‘Emerging Leader’ by National Academy of Medicine

Catherine Tcheandjieu Gueliatcha, DVM, PhD, an assistant investigator at Gladstone Institutes, has been selected by the National Academy of Medicine as an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar. She joins nine other health and science professionals across the U.S. who are being recognized for shaping the future of medicine.

“These emerging leaders represent the next generation of leading health professionals and scientists who are poised to accelerate innovative and cross-disciplinary activities and help shape the future of science, health, and medicine,” Victor Dzau, MD, president of the National Academy of Medicine, says in an announcement.

Tcheandjieu, who is also an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UC San Francisco, harnesses expertise in population genetics and statistics to understand the distribution of disease in various ethnic or geographic groups, and the genetic roots of disease in these groups.

By combining the latest genomics and AI technologies, she is also developing models to uncover factors that predispose people to disease and that may vary between people of different ancestries. She has conducted the largest genetic study to date for coronary artery disease in European, African, Hispanic, and Asian populations and identified new genetic variations associated with the disease among these populations.

"These emerging leaders represent the next generation of leading health professionals and scientists who are poised to ... shape the future of science, health, and medicine."

Victor Dzau, MD

“There’s immense public health value in Catherine’s research and the novel approaches she takes to understand disease,” says Katie Pollard, PhD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology. “She’s making a point to include genetic and health record data from populations that have historically been left out of genomic studies. She’s a true trailblazer.”

By building models that predict a person’s risk of developing a particular condition, Tcheandjieu is not only providing tools to guide healthcare decisions and prevention protocols, but also helping identify therapeutic targets to treat or even cure diseases.

The National Academy of Medicine established its Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine program in 2016 to increase its engagement with exceptional, interdisciplinary, early- to mid-career professionals working in biomedical science, population health, health care, health policy, and related fields.

The 2024 class of scholars will serve three-year terms, running through June 2027. During that time, they will meet regularly in Washington, D.C., with National Academy of Medicine leadership and members to share their work and insights on cutting-edge developments in their respective fields. They’ll also participate in a host of other activities, including attending the National Academy of Medicine’s annual meeting each October.

“I’m honored to receive this recognition and join such an esteemed group of people working to improve health and medicine,” says Tcheandjieu. “I look forward to exchanging ideas and collaborating with my fellow scholars to develop new ways of addressing disease for populations around the globe.”

Tcheandjieu earned her doctorate of veterinary science from the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Algiers in Algeria, and her PhD in genetic epidemiology from the University of Paris-Saclay in France. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where she focused on the genetics of cardiovascular disease before joining Gladstone Institutes in 2022.

Established originally as the Institute of Medicine in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine addresses critical issues in health, science, medicine, and related policy and inspires positive actions across sectors. Election to the National Academy of Medicine is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Gladstone is home to eight members: Jennifer Doudna, PhD; Warner Greene, MD, PhD; Robert W. Mahley, MD, PhD; Lennart Mucke, MD; Katie Pollard, PhD; Deepak Srivastava, MD; R. Sanders Williams, MD; and Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD.