Dr. Pirro Hysi joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2025 after 16 years at King’s College London (University of London). Most recently, he held the position of Reader, which includes tenure and is similar to the role of Associate Professor in the United States.
Dr. Hysi specializes in studying large data sets provided by third-party companies. He analyzes “biomarkers,” or characteristics that may or may not determine a likelihood of developing a given disease. He primarily studies samples provided by humans and does not use wet lab approaches. He looks for causes of disease in the general population, investigates how to intervene and change the processes that are causing disease, and determines how to prevent the disease from occurring through public health approaches. Some of his most impactful research identified the largest causes of disease, including a paper looking at the relationship between metabolism and glaucoma.
- PhD, Genomic Medicine, University of Oxford
- MS, Environmental and Health Sciences, University of Oxford
- BM/MD, Internal Medicine
Education & Training
Luben RN, Biradar MI, Stuart KV, Hu R, Sun Z, Li Z, Wang N, Do T, Pang CP, Nakano M, Tashiro K, Ikeda Y, Tokuda Y, Tanaka M, Omi N, Ueno M, Sotozono C, Kinoshita S, Mori K, Kitnarong N, Fea A, Melo MB, Vasconcellos JPC, Costa VP, Nongpiur ME, Ho CL, Perera SA, Craig JE, Kolovos A, Liza-Sharmini AT, Leuenberger EU, Park KH, Vijaya L, George R, Aung T, Khor CC, Foster PJ, Hysi P, Khawaja AP. GWAS for primary angle-closure glaucoma identifies loci related to ocular biometry and morphology. Nat Commun. 2025 Nov 14;16(1):10003. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-64949-z. PMID: 41238566; PMCID: PMC12618631.
Jiang X, Mahroo OA, Khawaja AP, Skowronska-Krawczyk D, Mackey DA, Wiggs JL, Hammond CJ, Hysi PG, Bell CG. Identification of blood-derived DNA methylation biomarkers of glaucoma and intraocular pressure measurements in three European ancestry cohorts, including the Canadian longitudinal study on aging. Epigenetics. 2025 Dec;20(1):2566496. doi: 10.1080/15592294.2025.2566496. Epub 2025 Oct 17. PMID: 41105805; PMCID: PMC12536625.
Hysi PG, Hammond CJ. An Ocular Gene-Set Expression Library for Heritability Partition and Cell Line Enrichment Analyses. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2025 Mar 3;66(3):11. doi: 10.1167/iovs.66.3.11. PMID: 40042876; PMCID: PMC11892535.
Thong KX, Andriesei P, Luo J, Qin M, Ng J, Tagalakis AD, Hysi P, Yu-Wai-Man C. Adrenaline blocks key cell cycle genes and exhibits antifibrotic and vasoconstrictor effects in glaucoma surgery. Exp Eye Res. 2023 Aug;233:109561. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2023.109561. Epub 2023 Jul 8. PMID: 37429521.
Qian C, Nusinovici S, Thakur S, Soh ZD, Majithia S, Chee ML, Zhong H, Tham YC, Sabanayagam C, Hysi PG, Cheng CY. Machine learning identifying peripheral circulating metabolites associated with intraocular pressure alterations. Br J Ophthalmol. 2023 Sep;107(9):1275-1280. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021- 20584. Epub 2022 May 25. PMID: 35613841.
Jiang X, Xu Z, Soorma T, Tariq A, Bhatti T, Baneke AJ, Pontikos N, Leo SM, Webster AR, Williams KM, Hammond CJ, Hysi PG, Mahroo OA. Electrical responses
from human retinal cone pathways associate with a common genetic polymorphism implicated in myopia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 May 24;119(21):e2119675119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2119675119. Epub 2022 May 20. PMID: 35594404; PMCID: PMC9173800.
Kassam I, Foo LL, Lanca C, Xu L, Hoang QV, Cheng CY, Hysi P, Saw SM. The Potential of Current Polygenic Risk Scores to Predict High Myopia and Myopic Macular Degeneration in Multiethnic Singapore Adults. Ophthalmology. 2022 Aug;129(8):890-902. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2022.03.022. Epub 2022 Mar 28. PMID: 35358591.
Patasova K, Khawaja AP, Wojciechowski R, Mahroo OA, Falchi M, Rahi JS, Hammond CJ, Hysi PG; UK Biobank Eye & Vision Consortium. A genome-wide analysis of 340 318 participants identifies four novel loci associated with the age of first spectacle wear. Hum Mol Genet. 2022 Aug 25;31(17):3012-3019. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddac048. PMID: 35220419; PMCID: PMC9433727.
- Genetics and genomics, health data analysis
- Omics data statistical learning
- Applied biostatistics
- Bioinformatics, and medical statistics
- Pharmacogenomics of response to medical treatment
- Ophthalmology
- AMD
- Glaucoma
- Myopia
- Pulmonary Disease
- Cardio and Cerebrovascular Disease
- Rare Variants and Sequencing
- Metabolomics, multi-omics and other large data
- Personalized medicine
Dr. Hysi’s research interests include genetics and genomics, health data analysis, omics data statistical learning, applied biostatistics, bioinformatics, and medical statistics. He began his career studying respiratory diseases, but he has since expanded his focus to multiple areas of medicine, including ophthalmology. He analyzes data related to ocular diseases including age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and myopia.