Assistant Professor, Department of Thoracic Surgery
Dr. Aldrich attended college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she received her B.A. in Biology in 1992. After finishing college, she worked at Genentech, Inc. as a research scientist focusing on asthma pulmonary biology. In 2001, she left Genentech to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where she received her M.P.H. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2003, and her Ph.D. in Epidemiology in 2007. Dr. Aldrich completed her postdoctoral training in 2010 at the University of California, San Francisco focusing on racial/ethnic differences in pulmonary function. She joined the Vanderbilt faculty in October 2010.
Dr. Aldrich’s research interests focus on identifying genetic and environmental risk factors for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in diverse racial/ethnic populations. Current projects include investigating racial differences in lung cancer incidence and survival outcomes, lung cancer risk prediction in screening populations, the genetic relationship between COPD and lung cancer, social vs genetic factors contributing to health disparities, and population genetics of African Americans. Dr. Aldrich’s research leverages large-scale epidemiologic studies and BioVU, Vanderbilts biobank.