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Lea Davis, PhD

img_Lea Davis
PROFESSOR | Medicine, Data Driven & Digital Medicine
PROFESSOR | Artificial Intelligence and Human Health
PROFESSOR | Psychiatry
PROFESSOR | Genetics and Genomic Sciences
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Research Topics
Addiction, Alzheimer's Disease, Atherosclerosis, Autism, Behavioral Health, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics, Brain, Clinical Genomics, Computational Biology, Depression, Epigenetics, Gene Discovery, Genetics, Genetics of Movement disorders, Genomics, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Metabolomics, Microarray, OBGYN, OCD, Obesity, Pain, Psychiatry, Schizophrenia, Stress, Trauma
Multi-Disciplinary Training Area
Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies in Medicine [AIET], Genetics and Genomic Sciences [GGS]
Uncovering Genetic Factors that Contribute to Women's Health Conditions
The Davis Lab has a longstanding interest in women's health and specifically in the genomics of reproductive and gynecological conditions such as Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (Previously known as PCOS), fibroids, disorders of menstruation, and conditions related to menarche and menopause.
Application of machine learning and AI to phenotyping in electronic health records
The Davis lab applies biomedical informatic approaches including machine learning and AI to develop computable phenotypes from electronic health record data. We apply these approaches to characterize a wide range of phenotypes including general medical conditions, psychiatric disorders, and women's health conditions.
Advancing precision psychiatry
I am the contact PI of the PsycheMERGE network, a large collaborative effort that is focused on advancing precision psychiatry research through psychiatric genomics research in the electronic health record (EHR). The PsycheMERGE (electronic MEdical Record and GEnomics) Network is a partnership of researchers across the world who are working to better understand and treat neuropsychiatric illnesses. Neuropsychiatric disorders are the leading causes of disability worldwide. Early detection and appropriate care are essential to improving long-term outcomes and may even change illness trajectories at a biological level. De-identified electronic medical records that are linked to DNA samples provide a powerful resource for researchers to discover what leads to chronic psychiatric illness and how to intervene early. Our mission is to advance precision care for mental health.
The modifying effects of sex and gendered environments on genetics of disease
The Davis Lab has a long history in sex differences research recently leading a multi-site R01 collaboration focused on the modifying effects of sex and gender across risk for complex disease and disease biomarkers. Our work shows that while there are large sex differences in the prevalence of many complex traits, sex differences in the genetic architecture are small and polygenic. These small genetic effects further support a model of “sex differences” rather than “sexual dimorphism” in the genetic architecture of complex traits. This subtle but important point leads to the need for novel methodologies and highlights the fact that there is a great deal of shared genetic and phenotypic variance between the sexes even though there are often substantial group mean differences in clinical features such as prevalence, age of onset, and comorbidity.

BS, University of Alabama

NA, University of Chicago

NA, University of Illinois

PhD, University of Iowa

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Physicians and scientists on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai often interact with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology companies, and other outside entities to improve patient care, develop new therapies and achieve scientific breakthroughs. In order to promote an ethical and transparent environment for conducting research, providing clinical care and teaching, Mount Sinai requires that salaried faculty inform the School of their outside financial relationships.

Below are financial relationships with industry reported by Dr. Davis during 2025 and/or 2026. Please note that this information may differ from information posted on corporate sites due to timing or classification differences.

Consulting or Other Professional Services Examples include, but are not limited to, committee participation, data safety monitoring board (DSMB) membership

  • University Of North Carolina
  • Simons Foundation
  • University of Texas, Austin

Editorial Services

  • Journal of the American Medical Association: Psychiatry

Outside Employment

  • New York Genome Center

Mount Sinai's faculty policies relating to faculty collaboration with industry are posted on our website. Patients may wish to ask their physician about the activities they perform for companies.