Jessica Dennis

(she/her)
PhD, MSc

Investigator, BC Children's Hospital

The last decade has seen an unprecedented explosion of data. In medicine, data are increasingly being generated and linked across electronic health records, administrative databases, and biobanked samples. These resources hold tremendous promise for improving human health and achieving precision medicine, which will only be realized by thoughtful study designs and innovative analyses.

My lab studies life course genetic epidemiology. We aim to understand how our genes, which are fixed at conception, interact with changing environments across time, and ultimately, affect traits and conditions that manifest throughout the lifecourse. Our overall goal is to improve precision health by matching the right preventative strategy or treatment, to the right person, at the right time. To achieve this, we apply computational methods to large-scale genomic and population health datasets that include longitudinal measures of health and disease, collected at different life stages. Brain related traits are a major area of focus, because change over time is a hallmark of psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions.

Academic Affiliations

  • Assistant Professor, , Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
  • Research Theme: Healthy Starts

Genome-wide association studies of binge eating behaviour and anorexia nervosa yield insights into the unique and shared biology of eating disorder phenotypes

Medrxiv

Termorshuizen, J.D. and Davies, H.L. and Lee, S.-H. and Dennis, J.K. and H{\"u}bel, C. and Johnson, J.S. and Lu, Y. and Munn-Chernoff, M.A. and Peters, T. and Mph, B.Q. and Schaumberg, K.E. and Signer, R.H. and Singh, K. and ter Kuile, A.R. and Thornton, L.M. and Xu, J. and Yao, S. and Yilmaz, Z. and Zhang, R. and Zvrskovec, J. and Abdulkadir, M. and Ayorech, Z. and Corfield, E.C. and Havdahl, A. and Krebs, K. and Mack, T.M. and Niarchou, M. and Palviainen, T. and Sealock, J.M. and Baker, J.H. and Bergen, A.W. and Birgeg?rd, A. and Perica, V.B. and B{\"u}hren, K. and Burghardt, R. and Cassina, M. and Collantoni, E. and Crowley, J.J. and Danner, U.N. and Degenhardt, F. and DeSocio, J.E. and Dina, C. and Dmitrzak-W?glarz, M. and Duncan, L.E. and Egberts, K.M. and Foretova, L. and Giegling, I. and Gonidakis, F. and Gordon, S.D. and Grove, J. and Guillaume, S. and Guintivano, J.D. and Hartman, A.M. and Hatzikotoulas, K. and Herms, S. and Imgart, H. and Jim{\'e}nez-Murcia, S. and Juli{\`a}, A. and Kalsi, G. and Kaminsk{\'a}, D. and Karhunen, L.J. and Kiezebrink, K.M. and Kolb, T. and Larsen, J.T. and Li, D. and Lilenfeld, L. and Maj, M. and Mattingsdal, M. and Meneguzzo, P. and Miller, A.L. and Mitchell, K.S. and Monteleone, A.M. and Olsen, C.M. and Padyukov, L. and Pantel, J. and Parker, R. and Pinto, D. and Raevuori, A. and Ripatti, S. and Roberts, M.E. and Santonastaso, P. and Savva, A. and Schmidt, U.H. and Schosser, A. and Seitz, J. and Slachtova, L.L.S. and Slopien, A. and Sorbi, S. and Straub, P.S. and Szatkiewicz, J.P. and Tam, F.I. and Tenconi, E. and Tortorella, A. and Tsitsika, A. and van Elburg, A.A. and Wagner, G. and Watson, H.J. and Adan, R.A.H. and Alfredsson, L. and Andreassen, O.A. and Ask, H. and Brandt, H.A. and Crawford, S. and Crow, S. and Davis, L.K. and de Zwaan, M. and Dedoussis, G. and Dick, D.M. and Ehrlich, S. and Estivill, X. and Favaro, A. and Fern{\'a}ndez-Aranda, F. and Fischer, K. and Forstner, A.J. and Gorwood, P. and Hakonarson, H. and Hebebrand, J. and Herpertz-Dahlmann, B. and Hinney, A. and Hudson, J.I. and Johnson, C. and Jordan, J. and Kaplan, A.S. and Kaprio, J. and Karwautz, A.F.K. and Kas, M.J.H. and Kaye, W.H. and Kennedy, J.L. and Kennedy, M.A. and Keski-Rahkonen, A. and Kim, Y.-R. and Klump, K.L. and Land{\'e}n, M. and Le Hellard, S. and Lehto, K. and Lissowska, J. and Maguire, S.L. and Martin, N.G. and Mattheisen, M. and Medland, S.E. and Micali, N. and Mitchell, J.E. and Monteleone, P. and Mortensen, P.B. and Nacmias, B. and Ophoff, R.A. and Papezova, H. and Pedersen, N.L. and Petersen, L.V. and Rajcsanyi, L.S. and Ramoz, N. and Reichborn-Kjennerud, T. and Ricca, V. and Ripke, S. and Rujescu, D. and Rybakowski, F. and Scherer, S.W. and Slof-Op{'}t Landt, M.C.T. and Sullivan, P.F. and ?wi?tkowska, B. and van Furth, E.F. and Wade, T.D. and Werge, T. and Whiteman, D.C. and Woodside, D.B. and Zipfel, S. and Bulik, C.M. and Huckins, L.M. and Breen, G. and Coleman, J.R.I.

DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.31.25321397

Polygenic backgrounds influence phenotypic consequences of variants in cells, individuals, and populations

Biorxiv

Chapel, M. and Dennis, J. and de Boer, C.G.

DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.07.631805

Early-Life Adversity and Epigenetic Aging: Findings from a 17-Year Longitudinal Study

Biomolecules

Barr, E. and Comtois-Cabana, M. and Coope, A. and Cot{\'e}, S.M. and Kobor, M.S. and Konwar, C. and Lupien, S. and Geoffroy, M.-C. and Boivin, M. and Proven?al, N. and Catherine, N.L.A. and Dennis, J.K. and Ouellet-Morin, I.

DOI: 10.3390/biom15060887

Genetic variation and pesticide exposure influence blood DNA methylation signatures in females with early-stage Parkinsons disease

npj Parkinson's Disease

Schaffner, S.L. and Casazza, W. and Artaud, F. and Konwar, C. and Merrill, S.M. and Domenighetti, C. and Schulze-Hentrich, J.M. and Lesage, S. and Brice, A. and Corvol, J.C. and Mostafavi, S. and Dennis, J.K. and Elbaz, A. and Kobor, M.S.

DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00704-3

Sex-dependent placental methylation quantitative trait loci provide insight into the prenatal origins of childhood onset traits and conditions

iScience

Casazza, W. and Inkster, A.M. and Del Gobbo, G.F. and Yuan, V. and Delahaye, F. and Marsit, C. and Park, Y.P. and Robinson, W.P. and Mostafavi, S. and Dennis, J.K.

DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109047

Canadian COVID-19 host genetics cohort replicates known severity associations

PLoS Genetics

Garg, E. and Arguello-Pascualli, P. and Vishnyakova, O. and Halevy, A.R. and Yoo, S. and Brooks, J.D. and Bull, S.B. and Gagnon, F. and Greenwood, C.M.T. and Hung, R.J. and Lawless, J.F. and Lerner-Ellis, J. and Dennis, J.K. and Abraham, R.J.S. and Garant, J.-M. and Thiruvahindrapuram, B. and Jones, S.J.M. and Strug, L.J. and Paterson, A.D. and Sun, L. and Elliott, L.T.

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011192

Sex differences in the associations of genetic, sociodemographic and cardiovascular risk factors with depression in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)

medRxiv

Thberge, E. and Dennis, J.

DOI: 10.1101/2023.04.10.23288267

A Parkinsons disease genetic risk score associates with blood DNAm on chromosome 17

medRxiv

Casazza, W. and Schaffner, S.L. and Artaud, F. and Domenighetti, C. and Baglietto, L. and Schulze-Hentrich, J.M. and Lesage, S. and Brice, A. and Corvol, J.-C. and Mostafavi, S. and Kobor, M.S. and Elbaz, A. and Dennis, J.K.

DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.21.23293014

Sex-dependent placental mQTL provide insight into the prenatal origins of childhood-onset traits and conditions

William Casazza and Amy M. Inkster and Giulia F. Del Gobbo and Victor Yuan and Fabien Delahaye and Carmen Marsit and Yongjin P. Park and Wendy P. Robinson and Sara Mostafavi and Jessica K Dennis

DOI: 10.1101/2022.10.04.22280695

10 / 2022

Usage of biobank data for psychiatric genomics and promotion of precision psychiatry

Psychiatric Genomics

Davis, L.K. and Kiri Dennis, J.

DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-819602-1.00018-8

Association of Preinjury Medical Diagnoses with Pediatric Persistent Postconcussion Symptoms in Electronic Health Records

Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation

Yengo-Kahn, A.M. and Hibshman, N. and Bonfield, C.M. and Torstenson, E.S. and Gifford, K.A. and Belikau, D. and Davis, L.K. and Zuckerman, S.L. and Dennis, J.K.

DOI: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000686

Clinical laboratory test-wide association scan of polygenic scores identifies biomarkers of complex disease.

Genome medicine

Dennis JK and Sealock JM and Straub P and Lee YH and Hucks D and Actkins K and Faucon A and Feng YA and Ge T and Goleva SB and Niarchou M and Singh K and Morley T and Smoller JW and Davis LK

DOI: 10.1186/s13073-020-00820-8 PubMed: 33441150

01 / 2021

Genetic risk for major depressive disorder and loneliness in sex-specific associations with coronary artery disease

Molecular Psychiatry

Dennis, J. and Sealock, J. and Levinson, R.T. and Farber-Eger, E. and Franco, J. and Fong, S. and Straub, P. and Hucks, D. and Song, W.-L. and Linton, M.R.F. and Fontanillas, P. and Elson, S.L. and Ruderfer, D. and Abdellaoui, A. and Sanchez-Roige, S. and Palmer, A.A. and Boomsma, D.I. and Cox, N.J. and Chen, G. and Mosley, J.D. and Wells, Q.S. and Davis, L.K.

DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0614-y

A phenome-wide association study identifying risk factors for pediatric post-concussion syndrome

Aaron M. Yengo-Kahn and Natalie Hibshman and Christopher M. Bonfield and Eric S. Torstenson and Katherine A. Gifford and Daniil Belikau and Lea K. Davis and Scott L. Zuckerman and Jessica K. Dennis

DOI: 10.1101/2020.07.17.20155895

07 / 2020

Lab-wide association scan of polygenic scores identifies biomarkers of complex disease

medRxiv

Dennis, J.K. and Sealock, J.M. and Straub, P. and Hucks, D. and Actkins, K. and Faucon, A. and Goleva, S.B. and Nirachou, M. and Singh, K. and Morley, T. and Ruderfer, D.M. and Mosley, J.D. and Chen, G. and Davis, L.K.

DOI: 10.1101/2020.01.24.20018713

A/T/N polygenic risk score for cognitive decline in old age

bioRxiv

Moore, A.M. and Filshtein, T.J. and Dumitrescu, L. and Harrati, A. and Elahi, F. and Mormino, E.C. and Deming, Y. and Kunkle, B.W. and Mungas, D.M. and Hedden, T. and Apostolova, L.G. and Saykin, A.J. and Chasioti, D. and Lu, Q. and Dennis, J. and Sealock, J. and Davis, L.K. and Fardo, D.W. and Buckley, R. and Hohman, T.J.

DOI: 10.1101/838847

Phenome-wide investigation of health outcomes associated with genetic predisposition to loneliness

Human Molecular Genetics

Abdellaoui, A. and Sanchez-Roige, S. and Sealock, J. and Treur, J.L. and Dennis, J. and Fontanillas, P. and Elson, S. and Nivard, M.G. and Ip, H.F. and Van Der Zee, M. and Baselmans, B.M.L. and Hottenga, J.J. and Willemsen, G. and Mosing, M. and Lu, Y. and Pedersen, N.L. and Denys, D. and Amin, N. and M Van Duijn, C. and Szilagyi, I. and Tiemeier, H. and Neumann, A. and Verweij, K.J.H. and Cacioppo, S. and Cacioppo, J.T. and Davis, L.K. and Palmer, A.A. and Boomsma, D.I.

DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddz219

Penetrance and pleiotropy of polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia in 106,160 patients across four health care systems

American Journal of Psychiatry

Zheutlin, A.B. and Dennis, J. and Linnr, R.K. and Moscati, A. and Restrepo, N. and Straub, P. and Ruderfer, D. and Castro, V.M. and Chen, C.-Y. and Ge, T. and Huckins, L.M. and Charney, A. and Kirchner, H.L. and Stahl, E.A. and Chabris, C.F. and Davis, L.K. and Smoller, J.W.

DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.18091085

Diagnostic algorithms to study post-concussion syndrome using electronic health records: Validating a method to capture an important patient population

Journal of Neurotrauma

Dennis, J. and Yengo-Kahn, A.M. and Kirby, P. and Solomon, G.S. and Cox, N.J. and Zuckerman, S.L.

DOI: 10.1089/neu.2018.5916

Penetrance and pleiotropy of polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia in 106,160 patients across four healthcare systems

Zheutlin AB and Dennis J and Linnr RK and Moscati A and Restrepo N and Straub P and Ruderfer D and Castro VM and Chen C and Ge T and Huckins LM and Charney A and Lester Kirchner H and Smoller JW

DOI: 10.1101/421164

09 / 2018

Beyond the market? New agrarianism and cooperative farmland access in North America

Journal of Rural Studies

Hannah Wittman and Jessica Dennis and Heather Pritchard

DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.03.007

07 / 2017

Leveraging cell type specific regulatory regions to detect SNPs associated with tissue factor pathway inhibitor plasma levels

Genetic Epidemiology

Dennis, J. and Medina-Rivera, A. and Truong, V. and Antounians, L. and Zwingerman, N. and Carrasco, G. and Strug, L. and Wells, P. and Trgout, D.-A. and Morange, P.-E. and Wilson, M.D. and Gagnon, F.

DOI: 10.1002/gepi.22049

Blood triglyceride levels are associated with DNA methylation at the serine metabolism gene PHGDH

Scientific Reports

Truong, V. and Huang, S. and Dennis, J. and Lemire, M. and Zwingerman, N. and Assi, D. and Kassam, I. and Perret, C. and Wells, P. and Morange, P.-E. and Wilson, M. and Trgout, D.-A. and Gagnon, F.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-09552-z

Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: Mixed methods to identify prevention measures

BMC Public Health

Teschke, K. and Dennis, J. and Reynolds, C.C.O. and Winters, M. and Harris, M.A.

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-3242-3

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in an intergenic chromosome 2q region associated with tissue factor pathway inhibitor plasma levels and venous thromboembolism

Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Dennis, J. and Truong, V. and Assi, D. and Medina-Rivera, A. and Blankenberg, S. and Germain, M. and Lemire, M. and Antounians, L. and Civelek, M. and Schnabel, R. and Wells, P. and Wilson, M.D. and Morange, P.-E. and Trgout, D.-A. and Gagnon, F.

DOI: 10.1111/jth.13431

Bicycling injury hospitalisation rates in Canadian jurisdictions: Analyses examining associations with helmet legislation and mode share

BMJ Open

Teschke, K. and Koehoorn, M. and Shen, H. and Dennis, J.

DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008052

Genetic determinants of tissue factor pathway inhibitor plasma levels

Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Dennis, J. and Kassam, I. and Morange, P.-E. and Trgout, D.-A. and Gagnon, F.

DOI: 10.1160/TH14-12-1043

Thrombin generation potential and whole-blood DNA methylation

Thrombosis Research

Rocan-Arj, A. and Dennis, J. and Suchon, P. and Assi, D. and Truong, V. and Trgout, D.-A. and Gagnon, F. and Morange, P.-E.

DOI: 10.1016/j.thromres.2014.12.010

RFC1 80G>A is a genetic determinant of methotrexate efficacy in rheumatoid arthritis: A human genome epidemiologic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Arthritis and Rheumatology

Kung, T.N. and Dennis, J. and Ma, Y. and Xie, G. and Bykerk, V. and Pope, J. and Thorne, C. and Keystone, E. and Siminovitch, K.A. and Gagnon, F.

DOI: 10.1002/art.38331

Genome-Wide investigation of DNA methylation marks associated with FV Leiden mutation

PLoS ONE

Assi, D. and Dennis, J. and Ladouceur, M. and Truong, V. and Zwingerman, N. and Rocanin-Arjo, A. and Germain, M. and Paton, T.A. and Morange, P.-E. and Gagnon, F. and Trgou, D.-A.

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108087

Challenges of population-based colorectal cancer screening and the importance of time-trend analysis when evaluating system change

Cancer Epidemiology

Zarychanski, R. and Dennis, J. and Singh, H.

DOI: 10.1016/j.canep.2013.10.007

Helmet legislation and admissions to hospital for cycling related head injuries in Canadian provinces and territories: Interrupted time series analysis

BMJ (Online)

Dennis, J. and Ramsay, T. and Turgeon, A.F. and Zarychanski, R.

DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f2674

The endothelial protein C receptor (PROCR) Ser219Gly variant and risk of common thrombotic disorders: A HuGE review and meta-analysis of evidence from observational studies

Blood

Dennis, J. and Johnson, C.Y. and Adediran, A.S. and De Andrade, M. and Heit, J.A. and Morange, P.-E. and Trgout, D.-A. and Gagnon, F.

DOI: 10.1182/blood-2011-10-383448

Breast cancer risk in relation to alcohol consumption and BRCA gene mutations - A case-only study of gene-environment interaction

Breast Journal

Dennis, J. and Krewski, D. and Ct, F.-S. and Fafard, E. and Little, J. and Ghadirian, P.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1524-4741.2011.01133.x

Bias in the case-only design applied to studies of gene-environment and gene-gene interaction: A systematic review and meta-analysis

International Journal of Epidemiology

Dennis, J. and Hawken, S. and Krewski, D. and Birkett, N. and Gheorghe, M. and Frei, J. and McKeown-Eyssen, G. and Little, J.

DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyr088

The effects of provincial bicycle helmet legislation on helmet use and bicycle ridership in canada

Injury Prevention

Dennis, J. and Potter, B. and Ramsay, T. and Zarychanski, R.

DOI: 10.1136/ip.2009.025353

Alcohol consumption and the risk of breast cancer among BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers

Breast

Dennis, J. and Ghadirian, P. and Little, J. and Lubinski, J. and Gronwald, J. and Kim-Sing, C. and Foulkes, W. and Moller, P. and Lynch, H.T. and Neuhausen, S.L. and Domchek, S. and Armel, S. and Isaacs, C. and Tung, N. and Sweet, K. and Ainsworth, P. and Sun, P. and Krewski, D. and Narod, S.

DOI: 10.1016/j.breast.2010.05.009

Genetic risk for major depressive disorder and loneliness in gender-specific associations with coronary artery disease: supplementary

Jessica Dennis and Julia Sealock and Rebecca T Levinson and Eric Farber-Eger and Jacob Franco and Sarah Fong and Peter Straub and Donald Hucks and MacRae F Linton and Wen-Liang Song and Pierre Fontanillas and Sarah L Elson and Douglas Ruderfer and Abdel Abdellaoui and Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Abraham A Palmer and Dorret I Boomsma and Nancy Cox and Guanhua Chen and Jonathan D Mosley and Quinn S Wells and Lea Davis

DOI: 10.1101/512541

Genetics of Brain-Related Disorders

We study psychiatric conditions like depression, neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, and the relationship between psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions. We aim to better understand the genetic factors that associate with the emergence and development of psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions over time, so that we can develop precision prevention and treatment strategies.

Biobank & Longitudinal Data

We use data from large-scale biobanks, which are collections of biospecimens (e.g., blood) linked to many different types of data on health behaviours, health outcomes (e.g., administrative health records), and environment. Increasingly, longitudinal data are being collected in biobanks, which allows us to study relationships between biological factors like genotype, and health changes over time.

Genomics & Time-varying Environments

While our genes are fixed at conception, environments change over time, and our genotype may influence how we react to these environments. We are exploring novel ways to statistically model gene-environment interactions, focusing on how exposures at different life stages become biologically embedded through our epigenome, and ultimately influence health outcomes.

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