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David G. Peters, PhD

Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; Professor of Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh

I am focused on developing blood tests, and other non-invasive methods, for the early detection and analysis of complex human diseases. My goal is to reduce the burden and impact of disease through earlier and more accurate diagnosis that informs personalized approaches to treatment.
David G. Peters, PhD

Research in Brief

Dr. Peters is working on creating simple blood tests that can detect serious health problems before symptoms appear. This approach aims to catch diseases early, leading to better treatment outcomes and improved health for mothers and babies.

  • Development of Non-invasive Liquid Biopsy Screening Tool for Preterm Birth Causes and Consequences (Co-PIs: D Peters, H Simhan), NIH/NICHD - R01HD110579 (08/13/2024-07/31/2029).
  • The non-invasive early detection of endometriosis (PI: D Peters), NIH/NICHD 1R21HD110579-01
  • Non-Invasive Analysis of Methylated Cell Free DNA in Necrotizing Enterocolitis (Co-PIs: D Peters, M Good), NIH/NIDDK - R01 DK124614, (07/01/2021-07/31/2026).
  • Liquid Biopsy for Complex Disease Detection and Phenotyping (PI: D Peters), Signature Diagnostics, (02/01/2021-07/31/2022).
  • Neonatal gut-on-a-chip platform for high content drug testing and precision medicine (Co-I: D Peters, PI: M Good), NIH/NICHD - R01 105301, (04/01/21-03/31/26). 
  • Good M, Chu T, Shaw P, McClain L, Chamberlain A, Castro C, Rimer JM, Mihi B, Gong Q, Nolan, LS, Cooksey K, Linneman L, Agrawal, P, Finegold DN, Peters DG*. Neonatal Necrotizing Enterocolitis-Associated DNA Methylation Signatures in Colon are Evident in Stool Samples of Affected Individuals Epigenomics. 2021 Jun;13(11):829-844. PMID: 33905263. 
  • Good M, Chu T, Shaw P, Nolan LS, Wrobleski J, Castro C, Gong Q, DeWitt O, Finegold DN, Peters DG*. Selective hypermethylation is evident in small intestine samples from infants with necrotizing enterocolitis. Clinical Epigenetics. 2022. Apr 11;14(1):49. PMID: 35410447. 
  • Lanik WE, Luke CJ, Nolan LS, Gong Q, Frazer LC, Rimer JM, Gale SE, Luc R, Bidani SS, Sibbald CA, Lewis AN, Mihi B, Agrawal P, Goree M, Maestas M, Hu E, Peters DG, Good M. Microfluidic device facilitates in vitro modeling of human neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis-on-a-chip. JCI Insight, 2023 Apr 24;8(8). PMID 36881475. 
  • Pan LA, Segreti AM, Wrobleski J, Shaw A, Hyland K, Hughes M, Finegold DN, Naviaux RK, Brent DA, Vockley J and Peters DG. Metabolomic Disorders: Confirmed Presence of Potentially Treatable Abnormalities in Patients with Treatment Refractory Depression and Suicidal Behavior. Psychological Medicine, 2023 Oct;53(13):6046-6054. PMID:36330595. 
  • Pan LA, Naviaux JC, Wang L, Li K, Monk JM, Lingampelly SS, Segreti AM, Bloom K, Vockley J, Tarnopolsky MA, Finegold DN, Peters DG and Naviaux RK. Metabolic features of treatment-refractory major depressive disorder with suicidal ideation. Translational Psychiatry. 2023 Dec 15;13(1):393. PMID 38097555. 
  • Noda K, Snyder ME, Xu Q, Peters D, McDyer JF, Zeevi A, Sanchez PG. Single center study investigating the clinical association of donor-derived cell-free DNA with acute outcomes in lung transplantation. Front Transplant. 2024 Jan 11;2:1339814. PMID 38993874. 
  • Frazer L, Chu TJ, Shaw PA, Boufford C, Tavares Naief L, Ednie M, RitzertRitzert L, Green CP, Good M, Peters DG. Detection of an intestinal cell DNA methylation signature in blood samples from neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis. Epigenomics 2025; Feb;2:1-11.
  • Good M, Chu T, Shaw P, McClain L, Chamberlain A, Castro C, Rimer JM, Mihi B, Gong Q, Nolan, LS, Cooksey K, Linneman L, Agrawal, P, Finegold DN, Peters D*. NEC-Associated DNA Methylation Signatures in Colon are Evident in Stool Samples of Affected Individuals Epigenomics. 2021 Jun;13(11):829-844. PMID: 33905263 
  • Good M, Chu T, Shaw P, McClain L, Chamberlain A, Castro C, Rimer JM, Mihi B, Gong Q, Nolan LS, Cooksey K, Linneman L, Agrawal, P, Finegold DN, Peters D*. Global Hypermethylation of Intestinal Epithelial Cells is a Hallmark Feature of Neonatal Surgical Necrotizing Enterocolitis. Clinical Epigenetics. 2020. Dec 11;12(1):190. PMID 33308304 
  • Pan L, McClain L, Shaw P, Donnellan N, Chu T, Finegold D, Peters D*. Non-invasive epigenomic molecular phenotyping of the human brain via liquid biopsy of cerebrospinal fluid and next generation sequencing. Eur J Neurosci. 2020 Oct 6. PMID: 33020990 
  • Chu T, Shaw P, McClain L, Simhan H, Peters D*. High-resolution epigenomic liquid biopsy for noninvasive phenotyping in pregnancy. Prenat Diagn. 2020 Oct 1. PMID: 33002217 
  • McClain LL, Shaw P, Sabol R, Chedia AM, Segretti AM, Rengasamy M, Finegold DN, Pan L, Peters DG*. Rare variants and biological pathways identified in treatment-refractory depression. Neurosci Res. 2020 Jul;98(7):1322-1334. PMID: 32128872 
  • McClain L, Segreti AM, Nau S, Shaw P, Finegold DN, Pan LA, Peters DG*. Chromosome 15q13.3 microduplications are associated with treatment refractory major depressive disorder. Genes Brain Behav. 2020 Jun;19(5):e12628. PMID: 31828948 
  • Chu T, Yeniterzi S, Dunkel M, Rajkovic A, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. Comparative evaluation of the minimally-invasive Karyotyping (MINK) Algorithm for non-invasive prenatal testing. PLoS. 2017; 12(3):e0171882 
  • Zhang P, Chu T, Dedousis N, Benjamin S. Sipula I, Li L, Bunce K, Shaw P, Zhu J, Argmann C, O’Doherty RM, Peters DG* and Scott DK. DNA methylation alters transcriptional rates of differentially expressed genes and contributes to pathophysiology in mice fed a high fat diet. Mol. Metab. 2017; 6(4):327-339 
  • Pan LA, Martin P, Zimmer T, Segreti AM, Kassiff S, McKain BW, Baca CA, Rengasamy M, Hyland K, Walano N, Steinfeld R, Hughes M, Dobrowolski SK, Pasquino M, Diler R, Perel J, Finegold DN, Peters DG, Naviaux RK, Brent DA, Vockley J. Neurometabolic Disorders: Potentially greatable abnormalities in patients with treatment-refractory depression and suicidal behavior. Am J Psychiatry. 2016 Aug 13. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.15111500. PMID: 27523499 
  • Yatsenko SA, Peters DG, Saller DN, Chu T, Clemens M, Rajkovic A. Maternal cell free DNA based screening for fetal microdeletion and the importance of careful diagnostic follow up. Genet Med. 2015 Oct;17(10):836-8. doi: 10.1038/gim.2014.197. PMCID: PMC4496325 
  • Chu T, Yeniterzi S, Yatsenko SA, Dunkel M, Rajkovic A, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. Cell-free nucleic acids as non-invasive biomarkers of gynecological disorders, fetal aneuploidy and constitutional maternal chromosomal mosaicism. Hum Reprod Update. 2015 Sept-Oct;21(5):690-2. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmv015. PMID: 25765864 
  • Peters DG*, Yatsenko SA, Surti U, Rajkovic A. Recent advances of genomic testing in perinatal medicine. Semin Perinatol. 2015 Feb; 39(1):44-54. doi: 10.1053/j. semperi.2014.10.009. PMCID: PMC4883661 
  • Chu TJ, Yeniterzi, Rajkovic A, Hogge WA, Dunkel M, Shaw PA, Bunce K, Peters DG*. High resolution non-invasive detection of a fetal microdeletion using the GCREM algorithm. Prenat Diagn. 2014 May;34(5):469-77. doi: 10.1002/pd.4331. PMCID: PMC4266320 
  • Bunce K, Chu T, Surti U, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. Discovery of epigenetic biomarkers for the non-invasive diagnosis of fetal disease. Prenat Diagn. 2012 Jun;32(6):542-9. doi: 10.1002/pd.3853. PMCID: PMC4308692 
  • Peters D*, Chu T, Yatsenko SA, Hendrix N, Hogge WA, Surti U, Bunce K, Dunkel M, Shaw P, Rajkovic A. Non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of a fetal microdeletion syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2011 Nov;365(19):1847-8. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1106975. PMCID: PMC4308687 
  • Chu T, Handley D, Bunce K, Surti U, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. Structural and regulatory characterization of the placental epigenome at its maternal interface. PLoS One. 2011 Feb; 6(2):e14723. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014723. PMCID: PMC3044138 
  • Chu T, Bunce K, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. Statistical considerations for digital approaches to non-invasive fetal genotyping. Bioinformatics. 2010 Nov;26(22):2863-6. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btq544. 
  • Chu T, Bunce K, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. A novel approach toward the challenge of accurately quantifying fetal DNA in maternal plasma. Prenat Diagn. 2010 Dec;30(12-13):1226-9. doi: 10.1002/pd.2656. 
  • Handley D, Peters DG*. Noninvasive prenatal chromosomal aneuploidy detection using plasma cell-free nucleic acid. Expert Rev Obstet Gynecol. 2010;5(5):581-9. 
  • Chu T, Burke B, Bunce K, Surti U, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. A microarray-based approach for the identification of epigenetic biomarkers for the noninvasive diagnosis of fetal disease. Prenat Diagn. 2009 Nov;29(11):1020-30. doi: 10.1002/pd.2335. 
  • Chu T, Bunce K, Hogge WA, Peters DG*. Statistical model for whole genome sequencing and its application to minimally invasive diagnosis of fetal genetic disease. Bioinformatics. 2009 May;25(10):1244-50. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btp156. 

For additional publications, visit Pubmed.

(Patricia) Annie Shaw, BS, MS Senior Research Assistant
Camille Boufford, MS Senior Research Assistant
Tianjiao Chu, PhD Associate Professor, OB/GYN
Lucas Tavares Naief Senior Research Assistant
Michaela Ednie Research Assistant
Laken Ritzert Research Assistant

Dec 3, 2024
MWRI Faculty Members Receive Over $18 Million in Latest Round of NIH Grants

Jun 23, 2019
Dr. David Peters: Developing Prenatal Tests that are Safer, Less Invasive

Jun 19, 2019
Dr. David Peters: Harnessing DNA to Improve Clinical Treatment and Care

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