Deqiong Ma


deqiong ma_web_resize.jpg Contact Information
dma@med.miami.edu
Assistant: Lorenzo, Ana
1501 NW 10 Ave.
Miami, FL 33136
ph: 305-243-5381
fax: 305-243-2396







Deqiong Ma, M.D., Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Genetics. Before moving to the genetic epidemiology field, she practiced for more than 5 years as a Pediatrician and later trained as an epidemiologist. The focus of her current research is to identify common and rare genomic structure variations and the environmental risk factors attributing to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). She is also highly interested in detecting potential biological and behavioral patterns that define subtypes of ASDs to dissect the complexity of susceptibility genes and pathways involved in the etiology of ASDs.

Selected Publications

First Author:

  1. Ma DQ, Rabionet R, Konidari I, Jaworski J, Cukier HN, Wright HH, Abramson RK, Gilbert JR, Cuccaro ML, Pericak-Vance MA, Martin ER. Association and gene-gene interaction of SLC6A4 and ITGB3 in autism. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2009 Jul 8. [Epub ahead of print]


  2. Wang K*, Zhang H*, Ma D*, Bucan M, Glessner JT, Abrahams BS, Salyakina D, Imielinski M, Bradfield JP, Sleiman PM, Kim CE, Hou C, Frackelton E, Chiavacci R, Takahashi N, Sakurai T, Rappaport E, Lajonchere CM, Munson J, Estes A, Korvatska O, Piven J, Sonnenblick LI, Alvarez Retuerto AI, Herman EI, Dong H, Hutman T, Sigman M, Ozonoff S, Klin A, Owley T, Sweeney JA, Brune CW, Cantor RM, Bernier R, Gilbert JR, Cuccaro ML, McMahon WM, Miller J, State MW, Wassink TH, Coon H, Levy SE, Schultz RT, Nurnberger JI, Haines JL, Sutcliffe JS, Cook EH, Minshew NJ, Buxbaum JD, Dawson G, Grant SF, Geschwind DH, Pericak-Vance MA, Schellenberg GD, Hakonarson H. Common genetic variants on 5p14.1 associate with autism spectrum disorders. (*: equal contribution) Nature, 459(7246):528-33, 2009 May 28.


  3. Ma D, Salyakina D, Jaworski JM, Konidari I, Whitehead PL, Andersen AN, Hoffman JD, Slifer SH, Hedges DJ, Cukier HN, Griswold AJ, McCauley JL, Beecham GW, Wright HH, Abramson RK, Martin ER, Hussman JP, Gilbert JR, Cuccaro ML, Haines JL, Pericak-Vance MA. A Genome-wide Association Study of Autism Reveals a Common Novel Risk Locus at 5p14.1. Ann Hum Genet., 73(Pt 3):263-73, 2009 May.


  4. MA DQ, Jaworski J, Konidari I, Cuccaro ML, Gilbert JR, Pericak-Vance MA. Dissecting the Locus Heterogeneity of Autism: Significant Linkage to Chromosome 12q14: Mol Psychiatry. 2006 Dec 19.


  5. Ma DQ, Whitehead PL, Menold MM, Martin ER, Ashley-Koch AE, Mei H, DeLong GR, Abramson RK, Wright HH, Cuccaro ML, Hussman JP, Gilbert JR, Pericak-Vance MA. Identification of significant association and gene-gene interaction on GABAA receptor subunit genes in autism Am J Hum Genet 2005 Sept;77(3):377-388.


  6. Ma DQ, Jaworski J, Menold M., Donnelly S, Abramson, RK, Wright, HH, Gilbert J, Pericak-Vance MA*, Cuccaro M. Ordered-Subsets Linkage Analysis on Savant Skills of Autistic Disorder In 15q11-Q13. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2005. May 5;135(1):38-41.

    7. .
  7. Ma DQ and Jones G. Soft drink and milk consumption, physical activity, bone mass, and upper limb fractures in children: a population-based case-control study. Calcif Tissue Int. 2004 Oct;75(4):286-91.


  8. Ma DQ and Jones G. Risk-taking, coordination and upper limb fractures in children: a population based case-control study. Osteoporos Int. 2004 Aug;15(8):633-8.


  9. Ma DQ and Jones G. Television/video viewing, physical activity in upper limb fractures in children: a population based case-control study. J Bone Miner Res. 2003, 18(11): 1970-7.


  10. Ma DQ, Jones G. The association between bone mineral density, metacarpal morphometry and upper limb fractures in children: a population based case-control study. J Clin. Endo. Met. 2003, 88(4): 1486-1491.


  11. Ma DQ, Jones G. Clinical risk factors but not bone density are associated with prevalent fractures in prepubertal children. J Paediatr Child Health. 2002 Oct; 38(5): 497-500.
Co-Author:

  1. Chiquet, BT, Blanton SH, Burt A, Ma DQ, Stal S, Mulliken JB, Hecht JT. Variation in WNT Genes is Associated with Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip with or without Cleft Palate. Hum Mol Genet.,17(14):2212-8, 2008 Jul 15.


  2. Powell S, Ma D, Jones G. Determinants of skeletal age deviation in a cross-sectional study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Dec 4.


  3. Ashley-Koch AE, Jaworski J, Ma DQ, Mei H, Ritchie MD*, Skaar DA, Delong GR, Abramson RK, Wright HH, Cuccaro ML, Gilbert JR, Martin ER, Pericak-Vance MA. Investigation of potential Gene-gene interactions between APOE and RELN contributing to autism risk. Psychiatr Genet, 2007 Aug;17(4):221-226.


  4. Collins AL, Ma DQ, Whitehead PL, Martin ER, Wright HH, Abramson RK, Hussman JP, Gilbert JR, Cuccaro ML, Pericak-Vance MA. Investigation of Autism and GABA Receptor Subunit Genes in Multiple Ethnic Groups. Neurogenetics. 2006 Jun 13.


  5. Ashley-Koch AE, Mei H, Jaworski J, Ma DQ, Ritchie, M, Menold MM, Abramson R, Wright HH, Cuccaro ML, Gilbert JR, Martin ER, Pericak-Vance MA. An analysis paradigm for investigating multilocus effects in complex disease: examination of three gabaa receptor subunit genes on 15q11-q13 as risk factors for autistic disorder. Ann Hum Genet. 2006 May;70(Pt 3):281-92


  6. Jones G, Ma DQ, Cameron F. Bone density interpretation and relevance in Caucasian children aged 9-16 years of age: insights from a population based fracture study. Journal of Clinical Densitometry: 2006 Summer;9(2):202-9.


  7. Mei H., Ma DQ, Ashley-Koch AE, Martin ER Extension of Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction for identifying multi-locus effects in the GAW14 simulated data. BMC genetics, 2005, 6(Suppl 1):S145.


  8. Winzenberg, TM, Ma DQ, P Taplin, Parker A, G Jones. Synovial Haemangioma of the Knee: a Case Report. Clinical Rheumatology, Clin Rheumatol. 2005 Oct 25;1-3.


  9. Jones G, Ma DQ. Skeletal age deviation: a new measure of bone mass and fracture risk in children. Bone. 2005 Feb; 36(2):352-7.


  10. Jones G, Ding CH, Glisson M, Hynes K, Ma D, Ciduttini F. Knee articular Cartilage development in children: a longitudinal study of the effect of gender, growth, tanner stage and physical activity. Pediatr Res. 2003 May; 54(2):230-6.