Alexandra Binder

Dr. Alexandra Binder is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and an Assistant Professor of Cancer Epidemiology at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center. Dr. Binder received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Scripps College, her Masters of Science in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, and her Doctorate of Science in Epidemiology, also from Harvard University.

As an epigenetic epidemiologist, Dr. Binder has published numerous studies on the impact of lifestyle and environmental influences on epigenetic patterns, and served as the primary epidemiologist and biostatistician on many collaborative projects. Her research has more generally focused on the use of epigenetic patterns to evaluate cancer risk and inform patient management to improve the long-term health of survivors.

Her current work focuses on:

  1. The developmental origins of health and disease

  2. Environmental influences on pubertal development

  3. Life-course epigenetics and biological aging

  4. Use of epigenetic patterns to inform management of cancer risk, treatment, and survivorship

  5. Guiding the design and analysis of epigenetic epidemiology studies

Education

  • ScD, Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
  • MS, Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
  • BA, Biology, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

Related Tags

Selected Publications

 

  • Lu AT, Binder AM, Zhang J, Yan Q, Reiner AP, Cox SR, Corley J, Harris SE, Kuo PL, Moore AZ, Bandinelli S, Stewart JD, Wang C, Hamlat EJ, Epel ES, Schwartz JD, Whitsel EA, Correa A, Ferrucci L, Marioni RE, Horvath S. DNA methylation GrimAge version 2. Aging (Albany NY). 2022 Dec 14;14(23):9484-9549. Epub 2022 Dec 14. PubMed PMID: 36516495.
  • Fernandez-Jimenez N, Fore R, Cilleros-Portet A, Lepeule J, Perron P, Kvist T, Tian FY, Lesseur C, Binder AM, et al. A meta-analysis of pre-pregnancy maternal body mass index and placental DNA methylation identifies 27 CpG sites with implications for mother-child health. Commun Biol. 2022 Nov 30;5(1):1313. PubMed PMID: 36446949; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9709064.
  • Jain P, Binder AM, Chen B, Parada H Jr, Gallo LC, Alcaraz J, Horvath S, Bhatti P, Whitsel EA, Jordahl K, Baccarelli AA, Hou L, Stewart JD, Li Y, Justice JN, LaCroix AZ. Analysis of Epigenetic Age Acceleration and Healthy Longevity Among Older US Women. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Jul 1;5(7):e2223285. PMID: 35895062, PMCID: PMC9331104
  • McCartney DL, Min JL, Richmond RC, Lu AT, Sobczyk MK et al. Genome-wide association studies identify 137 genetic loci for DNA methylation biomarkers of aging. Genome Biol 2021;22(1):194. PMID: 34187551; PMCID: PMC8243879.
  • Michels KB, Binder AM. Considerations for Design and Analysis of DNA Methylation Studies. Methods Mol Biol Clifton NJ. 2018; 1708:31–46. PMID: 29224137
  • Binder AM, Corvalan C, Mericq V, Pereira A, Santos JL, Horvath S, Shepherd J, Michels KB. Faster ticking rate of the epigenetic clock is associated with faster pubertal development in girls. Epigenetics. 2018;13(1):85-94. PMID: 29235933, PMCID: PMC5836971.
  • Michels KB, Binder AM, Dedeurwaerder S, Epstein CB, Greally JM, Gut I, Houseman EA, Izzi B, Kelsey KT, Meissner A, Milosavljevic A, Siegmund KD, Bock C, Irizarry RA. Recommendations for the design and analysis of epigenome-wide association studies. Nature Methods 2013;10:949-955. PMID: 24076989.