Obed A Garcia
- Assistant Professor
- Social and Behavioral Sciences Anthropology
- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
- Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2020
- Teaching ANTH 304 ONLINE (1st 8-weeks) AND ANTH 350 Medicine, Health, & Disease for fall 2026.
- Fall 2026 Office Hours: PENDING in 618 Fraser Hall; or by appt., send an email to oagc@ku.edu
Contact Info
1415 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Personal Links
Biography —
Dr. Obed Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, where he specializes in computational genomics, population genetics, and evolutionary medicine. His research examines how evolutionary processes have shaped immune variation across diverse human populations, with a particular focus on the HLA/MHC region. He develops and applies bioinformatics tools to study genomic variation in populations historically underrepresented in genomic science, bridging evolutionary genetics with precision medicine and health equity. Prior to coming to KU, he previously was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCSC (2023-2024) and a Postdoctoral Scholar in Biomedical Data Science at Stanford (2020-2023). He has conducted fieldwork in Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru, and collaborates with researchers across anthropology, medicine, and data science.
Education —
Research —
Research Interests:
- Computational genomics
- Population genetics
- Natural Selection
- HLA/MHC
- Autoimmune Disorders
- Infectious Disease
- Pangenomes
- Precision medicine
Selected Presentations —
Conference Abstracts
2023 Penjueli M, Blanco-Portillo J, Sokol J, Liu F, Garcia O, Taparra K, Barberena-Jonas C, Medina-Muñoz SG, Venkataraman G, Moreno-Estrada A, Kirch P, Feldman M, Gignoux C, Wojcik G, Fox K, Jha AR, Ioannidis A. Pacific Islander Founder Populations. The Annual Meeting of The American Society of Human Genetics.
2023 ShapiraR, KleinCJ, KeselerIM, CheungG, GarciaOA, Fernández-ViñaM, MerrimanTR, TinA, PlonSE, Wright MW, AksentijevichI, MackSJ, Bridges, Jr.SL, KleinTE, on behalf of the ClinGen Rheumatologic Autoimmune Disease Clinical Domain Working Group. Development of the ClinGen Rheumatologic Autoimmune Disease Clinical Domain Working Group (RAD CDWG) as an exemplar of complex disease curation. The Annual Meeting of The American Society of Human Genetics.
2023 Penjueli M, Blanco-Portillo J, Sokol J, Garcia OA, Liu F, Barbarena Jonas C, Fox K, Feldman M, Jha A, Ioannidis A. Effect of Admixture and Selection in Hawaiians. The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB)
2023 Meeting. 4 2023 Garcia OA, Reveille JD, Keseler I, Whirl-Carillo M, Klein C, Shapira R, Wright MW, Bridges SL, Fernandez-Viña M, Mack SJ, Klein TE. Developing an HLA curation framework in ClinGen for complex diseases. The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2023 Meeting.
2022 Zhu K, Kiyamu M, Elías G, Isherwood K, Garcia OA, Lee FS, Rivera-Chira M, Leon-Valerde F, Brutsaert TD, Bigham AW. Genomic features underlying the Andean pattern of high-altitude adaptations. The American Association of Biological Anthropology Meeting.
2022 Battista VM, Zhu KT, Garcia OA, Evans K, Inclán M, Kiyamu M, Brutsaert TD, Shriver M, Pearson L, Bigham AW. Genetic Evidence for Heat Adaptation in Mexican Mayans. The American Association of Biological Anthropology Meeting.
Memberships —
2014-Present American Association of Anthropological Genetics
2014-Present American Association of Physical Anthropology
2011-Present The American Society of Human Genetics