Dr. Esteban Vazquez-Hidalgo is one of five post-doctoral fellows from across the United States chosen for the 's Fellows Class of 2026. The class includes five early-career investigators, and the program provides a unique, year-long networking and mentoring experience.
Esteban studies the influence of genetic variation on gene regulation and neurological disease risk. His research focuses on allele-specific expression and regulatory mechanisms in complex traits such as Alzheimer’s disease, integrating computational genomics, statistical genetics, and transcriptomic analysis.
His work leverages large-scale genomic data to understand cis-regulatory variation and how regulatory dosage and population ancestry shape disease-relevant gene expression. As a postdoc he is mentored by Dr. William Bush, Associate Director for Bioinformatics Research at the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology () and Professor in the Population and Quantitative Health Sciences (PQHS) Department.
As a Keystone Symposia Fellow, Esteban will begin by attending the January Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Meeting in Colorado. The Keystone Fellows actively participate in subcommittee sessions with distinguished scientists to shape topic ideas and content to develop the 2028 conference portfolio. They will be paired with a member of the SAB for direct mentorship throughout the year – and sometimes beyond. "This unique relationship provides each Fellow with one-on-one guidance on career-development and professional growth to succeed along their career path and navigate career challenges."