Dabeeru C. Rao, Ph.D. is ‘giant of genetic epidemiology’

By Barbara Rodriguez

The Record Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 2000.

Dabeeru C. Rao, Ph.D., a professor of biostatistics and director of the School of Medicine’s Division of Biostatistics, studies how genes and environmental factors shape people’s lives – in particular, their risk of developing diseases. But the native of a small village in southeast India attributes his own success to less tangible factors: luck, determination to succeed and perseverance born of gratitude for family members who made sacrifices to help him achieve.

Rao’s father moved to Santabommalli, Andhra Pradesh, when he was 17. He took with him a new wife, a widowed sister, a widowed mother, and no money or job prospects. By underbidding contractors for construction jobs in the area and investing in farm land, he was able to save money. Against his neighbors’ advice, he spent it all sending Dabeeru, known as D.C., and his other 11 children away to college.

"My father used to say, ‘If we have money, we will spend it on something, or one day, we may be robbed,’" Rao said. "But if we put this money into education, nobody can take it away."

The elder Rao’s sacrifice came with strings attached. For example, he insisted that his children only play with other children who were college-bound. Rao’s siblings became professionals in a variety of fields. Rao, the seventh-oldest child, followed the advice of his physician brother and became a statistician. "His vision was that I would do something nontraditional as a tribute to my father," said Rao.

Several of Rao’s colleagues would argue that he has done much more than that. Theodore Reich, M.D., the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Professor of Psychiatry and a genetics professor at the medical school, noted that Rao has made the biostatistics division nationally renowned while helping found the field of genetic epidemiology. "He is one of the giants of genetic epidemiology and one of its first great lights," Reich said.

Rao received a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree at the prestigious Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta. He had to place in the top 25 on a national exam to gain entry. Once at the institute, Rao soon became fascinated with the application of statistics to questions in genetic epidemiology, the study of the genetics and inheritance of disease and other traits. "I would say it was pure luck that I landed at the institute, and once I was there, it was the gravity of the intellectual atmosphere and the inspiring mentoring of C.R. Rao, the institute’s director, that turned me on to genetic epidemiology," Rao said. The two are not related.

He took the few courses available on statistical genetics and set his sights on leaving India to train with a leading genetic epidemiologist in Hawaii. In 1971, Rao received a letter from the Hawaiian researcher, Newton Morton, Ph.D., and was soon on his way to the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. "I didn’t think twice. I just took the offer and spent a wonderful eight years in Hawaii," he said.

Rao worked with Morton developing statistical tools to determine the influence of genetic factors on human traits. To test out new models, Rao analyzed data from studies of intelligence in different races. He discovered using his early modeling work that the influence of genes on intelligence varied from 20 percent to 80 percent. Rao’s subsequent work suggested that genes likely account for about 30 percent of IQ.

He is best known for his work on a statistical method called path analysis, which is used heavily in genetic epidemiology studies to identify factors responsible for complex human traits and complex diseases. And Rao developed methods used to link specific genes to the risk of developing diseases.

His efforts also have helped researchers determine what role environmental factors – what people eat, where they live and so on – play in disease. "It took no time for me to become convinced that it’s genes and environmental factors and the way they work together that influence who develops certain diseases," Rao said.

Luck and diligence worked in Rao’s favor again when he visited the continental United States to interview on the East Coast in 1979. Reich and C. Robert Cloninger, M.D., the Wallace Renard Professor of Psychiatry and a professor of genetics here, convinced Rao to stop over in St. Louis. The medical school’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health needed a new director for its biostatistics division. Rao, who had directed the Population Genetics Laboratory in Honolulu when needed, was asked if he would accept this new challenge.

He jumped at the opportunity and, in the past two decades, has built the division into a powerhouse of biostatistics, specializing in cutting-edge genetic epidemiology methods and analyses of factors influencing disease development.

Division faculty analyze the results from studies that address everything from how genetic and environmental factors affect the development of obesity to what causes dangerously high blood pressure in pregnant women. Rao and his colleagues helped design such studies to ensure that their data provide reliable conclusions. The biostatistics faculty also oversees these studies, many of which involve thousands of volunteers and dozens of physicians and researchers at sites across the United States. And they advise medical school faculty and other researchers on study design and analysis.

Rao also has had a far-reaching impact on the genetic epidemiology field. "Rao is the founding editor of the leading journal in the field of statistical genetics, has received many honors for his efforts in statistics and biostatistics and has been a very important person for fostering the careers of younger investigators," said Jean MacCluer, Ph.D., a genetic epidemiologist at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio.

Michael Province, Ph.D., a mathematician-turned-statistician under Rao’s tutelage, agreed. Rao was his thesis adviser in the 1980s. Despite Rao’s hectic schedule, he was always accessible, said Province, a professor of biostatistics. "At first I was somewhat intimidated to interact with him because of his stature in genetic epidemiology," Province said, "but I realized that he really likes a good scientific argument and will challenge you to hold up your theories to the cold light of reality."

In his spare time, Rao gardens, takes pictures and spends time with his two children and wife, Sarada, with whom he recently celebrated a 25^th wedding anniversary. Sarada stopped working in 1974 to support his career, and Rao credits his success and well-being to her unfailing support.

Province and others believe they owe as much to Rao for his support of their personal and professional growth. "He talks about the division as his family, and that’s not rhetoric," Province said. "He really believes it."