About this event
The NSF hosted a Distinguished Lecture from 2024 Alan T. Waterman Award Laureate Katrina Claw, PhD, on September 4, 2024.
A recording of the lecture is linked below. Built in captioning is available by clicking on the icon in the lower right of the screen.
Abstract: How can we bridge the divide that exists among researchers and Indigenous communities to foster inclusive and impactful approaches to health equity and personalizing medicine? In this lecture, Katrina Claw, PhD, shares her commitment to advancing community-engaged research in pharmacogenomics, explores the role of holistic healing and tailored interventions in promoting health equity, and provides insights on how she establishes and maintains community-based research through partnerships and collaborations. Dr. Claw’s research is grounded in ethical practices and Indigenous epistemology, and she works with communities who continue to be exploited, excluded, or misrepresented. She contends that research should be done “with” communities and not “on” communities, and that inclusive and Indigenous-grounded practices can enhance genomics research and science more broadly. She will share the current state of Indigenous peoples in genomics and reflect on her experiences as many more Indigenous scientists enter the field and advocate for Indigenous sovereignty in genomics.
Speaker Bio: Katrina G. Claw is an assistant professor in biomedical informatics at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus and director of the Precision health & genomics: Indigenous Mentoring and Ethics program. Claw joined the faculty of CU following completion of a postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacogenomics and bioethics at the University of Washington, where she also completed her doctorate in genome sciences. She holds bachelor’s in biology and anthropology from Arizona State University. Claw is a member of the Diné (Navajo) people and grew up on the Navajo Nation in Many Farms, Arizona.
Claw's research focuses broadly on personalizing medicine, using genetic information and biomarkers for tailored treatment, as well as understanding the ethical, cultural and social implications of genomic research.
Claw serves as a mentor for students in the Claw Indigenous Genomics and Ethics lab at CU and is a faculty and organizer for the Summer Internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics U.S. workshop. She received the National Human Genome Research Institute Genomic Innovator Award (2020), a pilot grant from the Native American Research Centers for Health and an NSF Ethical and Responsible Research program award (2021).
About the Waterman Lectures:
Please join the U.S. National Science Foundation for a three-part lecture series featuring the laureates of the 2024 Alan T. Waterman award, the nation's highest honor for early-career scientists and engineers. The topics covered by their presentations include equitable medical imaging, community-engaged pharmacogenomics, and robots that evolve on demand.