Charmaine Royal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charmaine Royal
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| Born | |
| Alma mater | Howard University (BS, MS, PhD) |
| Awards | Thomas Langford Lectureship Award Duke University (2013) Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics Duke University (2009) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Duke University Howard University National Institutes of Health |
| Thesis | Coping strategies in families of children with Sickle Cell Disease (1997) |
Charmaine DM Royal is a scientist from Jamaica and America. She is a geneticist, which means she studies genes and how they affect living things. She works as a professor at Duke University.
Dr. Royal studies how things like race, family background, and genes are connected to health. She especially focuses on groups of people who haven't always been included fairly in genetic research. Her main goal is to find lasting solutions to problems of race and unfairness in science, healthcare, and society. She is also part of important groups like the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) committee.
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Early Life and Learning
Charmaine Royal went to Howard University for her college degrees. She earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology. This is the study of very tiny living things like bacteria.
Later, she got her master's degree in genetic counseling in 1992. This taught her how to help families understand genetic conditions. In 1997, she earned her doctorate in human genetics. This means she became an expert in how human genes work.
After university, she continued her training. She studied bioethics, which is about the right and wrong ways to use science and medicine. She also learned about the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that come with new discoveries in genetics.
Research and Career
Dr. Royal looks into how race, unfairness, and genetics affect people's health. She studies these issues both in the United States and around the world.
When she worked at the National Human Genome Center at Howard University, she was part of a big science project. This project was called the International HapMap Project. It aimed to create a map of common patterns of human genetic variation. She worked with another important scientist named Charles Rotimi.
Her research looked at the genes and health of African Americans. She also studied the ethical questions that come up when looking at the family history of African Americans.
Helping the Community
At Duke University, Dr. Royal has held many important roles. She has been a professor in different departments, including African & African American Studies and Global Health.
She also helps lead special centers at Duke. One is the Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation. Another is the Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference. These centers work to understand and fix problems related to race and identity in science and society.
Dr. Royal is also a senior fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics. She was a visiting professor at the University of Iowa in 2020. She has also helped with other large science projects, like the 1000 Genomes Project Consortium. This project collected information about human genetic variation from many people around the world. She also advises a company called Illumina, Inc. on ethical matters.
Awards and Honors
- 2009: She was named a Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics by Duke University.
- 2013: She received the Thomas Langford Lectureship Award from Duke University.
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