Leadership

Dr. Ginger Nicol is a board-certified general and child psychiatrist, and her passion is helping both kids and adults with psychiatric disorders to have healthy bodies as well as healthy minds. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Journalism & Mass Communication, then obtained her medical degree from the University of Iowa as well. Not having had enough of the Midwest, she came to St. Louis to complete her general psychiatry and child psychiatry training. Following residency and fellowship, she completed a post-doctoral research program where she gained expertise in the study of obesity and related metabolic conditions like diabetes. Dr. Nicol focuses her research on developing and testing new therapies that can help kids and adults with mental health conditions reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Dr. Justice is Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences in the Center for Biomedical & Translational Informatics at Geisinger Health. She has an MA and PhD in Anthropology and fellowship training in epidemiology. Dr. Justice leads or co-leads several large-scale genetic studies evaluating chronic illnesses of public health interest, including obesity and sleep apnea employing longitudinal, integrated epigenetic, genetic, and transcriptional analytic approaches. Dr. Justice co-leads the ORAcLE study with Dr. Nicol, overseeing data extraction and analyses of data from large health systems, existing genetics consortia and large cohort studies with combined genetic and clinical information on antipsychotic exposure, Body Mass Index (BMI) and clinical indicators of metabolic health.

Dr. Locke is Director of Statistical Genetics at Regeneron Genetics Center, LLC. His PhD is in Genetics & Molecular Biology. He is an expert in the application of genome-wide association meta-analysis and the use of sequencing data to investigate the relationships between type 2 diabetes, obesity, and psychiatric disorders. As an Assistant Professor at Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Locke co-led efforts to develop the translational research plan for the ORAcLE study with Dr. Nicol. As Logistics Lead for the ORAcLE study, Dr. Locke draws upon his unique expertise and scientific collaborations to achieve the ORAcLE consortium’s goal of establishing precision medicine approaches to treatment development and delivery at the intersection of mental and metabolic health.