Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios - Washington ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
1
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Greg Barsh, MD, PhD, is a Faculty Investigator and Faculty Chair at
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a Professor of Genetics at
Stanford University. He has served as director of the Stanford Medical
Scientist Training Program, chair of the NIH study section on Genetics of
Health and Disease, and currently is an Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Genetics,
and co-director of the UAB-HudsonAlpha postdoctoral training program in
Genomic Medicine. His research group studies the genetic and evolutionary
mechanisms that underlie morphologic differences between individuals, and
between closely related species, and for which a deeper understanding
promises new insight into basic biology and human disease. Barsh received
his MD and PhD from the University of Washington, and obtained
postgraduate training in internal medicine and medical genetics at Harbor-
UCLA and UC San Francisco.
Bruce Birren, PhD, at the Broad Institute, uses genomic approaches to
study organisms that cause infectious diseases, including their interactions
with hosts. He facilitates training workshops for mentors and mentees to
increase the effectiveness of these critical professional relationships, with a
focus on culturally responsive mentoring. He leads workshops to help
develop skills for communicating science, for recognizing and addressing
implicit bias and microaggressions, and to promote awareness of how
aspects of our identities interact with the culture of science and perpetuate
underrepresentation of members of specific groups in research careers.
Paul Spicer, PhD, is a Professor of Anthropology and Principal Investigator
on a Center of Excellence in ELSI Research (CEER) at the University of
Oklahoma. His research centers on health and social policy in American
Indian and Alaska Native communities, and the CEER at OU relies on a
national network of community-based tribal research organizations to foster
dialogue on the ethical and legal questions that arise regarding genomics in
American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
2
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Jessica Blanchard, PhD, is a Research Scientist at the University of
Oklahoma’s Center for Applied Social Research where she is part of an
interdisciplinary team of researchers focused broadly on the reduction of health
disparities in American Indian/Alaska Native communities. A cultural
anthropologist by training, Dr. Blanchard is currently working on a number of
research projects related to delivery of cancer care and pediatric cancer concerns
in Native communities, ethical and social implications of genomics research in
tribal contexts, and community-engaged partnerships in health research. She is
currently affiliated with the Center for the Ethics of Indigenous Genomic Research
where she is involved in a series of projects designed to elicit community
participation in genomics-related research, and serves as Director of the newly
established Genomics and Ethics for Native Students Program at OU.
Maja Bućan, PhD, (MPI, Penn Computational Genomics training grant; MPI,
Diversity Action Plan in Genomics at Penn) is a Professor of Genetics in the
Departments of Genetics and Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine and
a co-Director of the Autism Spectrum Program of Excellence at the University of
Pennsylvania. She received her PhD from University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia
and performed her training at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in
Heidelberg, Germany and at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, UK.
Dr. Bucan’s research interests are in the broad area of psychiatric and behavioral
genomics. Her laboratory investigated mouse models of behavioral disorders and
made a major contribution to genetic studies of autism and bipolar disorder.
Junhyong Kim, PhD, is the Patricia M. Williams Term Endowed Professor and
Chair of Department of Biology at University of Pennsylvania. He is also an
Adjunct Professor of Computer and Information Science and the Co-Director of
Penn Program in Single Cell Biology. He is the MPI of Penn’s Computational
Genomics T32 and the NHGRI CEGS Center for Sub-cellular Genomics, whose
goal is to develop new technologies for sub-cellular genomic measurements. His
research combines genomic technologies with mathematical and computational
models to address evolutionary cell biological questions. He has worked in the
areas of algebraic statistics, evolution of development, and neuro-cell biology.
3
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Carol Bult, PhD, is Professor and Knowlton Family Chair and Deputy Director of
The Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center. Prior to joining the Laboratory in 1997,
she was a founding faculty member of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR)
where she helped to pioneer the application of large-scale genomics to gene
discovery and whole genome sequencing. At The Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Bult and
her collaborators maintain a unique database of genetic and genomic data for
mouse models of human disease – a resource that is free to the entire scientific
community. Her research group combines computational and experimental
approaches to investigate the genetic and molecular drivers of cancer and to
identify causative mutations in human birth defects. She has published more than
140 scientific papers and serves on numerous scientific advisory boards, including
the National Advisor y Council f or the NIH Human Genome Research
Institute (NHGRI ). Current projects in the Bult lab include integrating diverse data from humans and
mice to predict genes that are responsible for a human birth defect, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and
exploring the relationship of microRNAs and tumor progression in lung cancer. Dr. Bult is the Director of
the Diversity Action Plan (DAP) program at The Jackson Laboratory.
Richard Green, PhD, is co-director of the UCSC Paleogenomics lab. His
research is focused on technology and tool development for genomics. Current
research interests include genome assembly, comparative genomics, forensics,
ancient DNA, and human evolution.
Barak Cohen’s, PhD, research at Washington University in St. Louis, is
interested in how genes get turned on at the right times and places and at the right
levels. His group studies how the cell integrates information encoded in cis-
regulatory DNA to produce proper levels of gene expression. They take an
interdisciplinary approach the combines high-throughput experiments and
computational modeling. As a PI on an NHGRI training grant, he tries to foster this
same approach to science in our trainees.
4
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Michael Brent, PhD, is interested in mapping, modeling, and engineering
transcriptional regulatory networks on a whole-cell scale. He has been a
director of the Genome Analysis Training Program (GATP) at Washington
University in St. Louis since 2004. GATP trains students from diverse
personal and intellectual backgrounds in technology-intensive and
computational approaches to genome science.
Lisa S. Parker, PhD, a philosopher, is Professor of Human Genetics and Director
of the Center for Bioethics & Health Law at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a
former Chair of the Genomics and Society Working Group of the NHGR, and has
served on the ELSI Program study section and ad hoc Societal and Ethical Issues
in Research study sections, as well as on the Expert Scientific Panel of the
Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network. Her research
focuses on ethical management of incidental findings and return of results of
genomic research, as well as informed consent, privacy, and mental health
research issues.
Bruce Korf’s, MD, PhD, research at the University of Alabama Birmingham is
focused on two areas. First, he is working on development of genome-guided
therapeutics, that is, treatments that target a mutated gene or gene product. This
is being done in the context of neurofibromatosis type 1, a condition in which he
has a long-term interest and directs a clinical trials consortium. Second, he is
involved in genomic medicine, particularly the use of genome sequencing to
establish diagnoses and understand pathophysiology in the hope of developing
new approaches to treatment of genetic conditions.
5
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Michael Boehnke, PhD, is the Richard G. Cornell Distinguished University
Professor of Biostatistics and Director of the Center for Statistical Genetics and
Genome Science Training Program at the University of Michigan. His research
focuses on development and application of statistical designs and analysis
methods for human genetics, with emphasis on identification of genetic variants
that predispose to human diseases and traits. He is a principal investigator of the
FUSION study of the genetics of type 2 diabetes (T2D), steering committee chair
of the T2D-GENES multiethnic genome sequencing consortium, and a PI of the
Accelerating Medicines Partnership T2D Knowledge Portal project, the BRIDGES
bipolar disorder sequencing project, and the InPSYght schizophrenia and bipolar
sequencing project.
Joshua Denny's, MD, MS, research at Vanderbilt University focuses on the
creation of methods and large resources to use electronic health records and other
large data sets to better understand the genomic basis of disease and drug
response. His policy interests involve approaches to study and sharing of electronic
health record data in understandable formats and the algorithms, approaches, and
standards needed to promote personalized medicine in practice. Two of the novel
methods from his lab include phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS) and
phenotype risk scores (PheRS). He is PI of several networks advancing genomic
medicine: All of Us Research Program, Electronic Medical Records and Genomics
(eMERGE) Network, Implementing Genomics into Practice (IGNITE), and
Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN).
Susan Dutcher, PhD, is the Acting Director of the McDonnell Genome
Institute at Washington University in St. Louis and she runs a research
lab studying ciliopathies. She started her career in science studying yeast
cell cycle mutants with Dr. Leland Hartwell and realized how model
organisms could be used to understand human biology. They used
comparative genomics of genomes in organisms with and without cilia to
find human ciliopathy disease genes, and use cell biology, genomics,
genetics and imaging to understand the roles of these genes.
6
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Geoffrey Ginsburg, MD, PhD, with Duke University, is currently a member of
the Advisory Council to the Director of NIH and is co-chair of the National
Academies Roundtable on Genomic and Precision Health and is founder and
president of the Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative, a not for profit
organization aimed creating international partnerships to advance the
implementation of precision medicine. He has recently served as a member of
the Board of External Experts for the NHLBI, the advisory council for the
National Center for Accelerating Translational Science, the chair of the review
for Genome Canada’s Large Scale Applied Research Competition in Genomics
and Precision Medicine, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda
Council on the Future of the Health Sector. He was previously Vice President
of Molecular Medicine at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc and a faculty member
at Harvard Medical School.
Susanne Haga, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Duke University School of
Medicine, Department of Medicine and the Center for Applied Genomics &
Precision Medicine. She also has a secondary appointment in the Sanford
School of Public Policy at Duke University and is a member of the Duke Center
for Genomic and Computational Biology (GCB). She oversees the education
programs for the CAGPM and GCB and regularly teaches undergraduate
courses in genomics, bioethics, and public policy. Her research interests focus
on issues affecting the translation of genomics to clinical practice, particularly in
the field of pharmacogenetic testing.
Evan Eichler, PhD, is a Professor and Howard Hughes Medical
Institute Investigator of Genome Sciences at the University of
Washington. The Eichler laboratory develops computational and
experimental methods to characterize structural variation within human
and non-human primate genomes. We are especially interested in the
role of recent duplications in the evolution of neuroadaptive traits in
humans and the instability they confer leading to de novo variation
associated with autism and developmental delay. The Eichler lab is
part of a larger group of 53 laboratories dedicated to the training of
predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows working in the area of genomics,
proteomics and computational biology.
7
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Professor Gail Jarvik MD, PhD, is an internist and medical geneticist who holds
the Arno G. Motulsky Endowed Chair in Medicine and Heads the Division of
Medical Genetics at the University of Washington. She cares for adult medical
genetics patients. Her research focuses on the statistical genetic analysis of
common diseases, including cancer, vascular disease, and dementia. She has
broad research interests in the implementation of genomic medicine, including her
work in the Electronic Health Records and GEnomics (eMERGE), Clinical
Sequencing Evidence-generating Research (CSER), Undiagnosed Disease, and
All of Us Consortia. Her active research in biomedical ethics includes returning
genomic research results to participants and the impact of regulations on genomic
research.
Steven Joffe, MD, MPH, is a bioethicist and pediatric oncologist whose work
focuses on ethical and policy challenges in medicine and science, with an
emphasis on research involving human subjects and on the integration of genomic
technologies into research and clinical care. His studies in the ethical, legal and
social implications (ELSI) of genomics have addressed the return of research
results to individual participants and the use of somatic and germline sequencing
in cancer care. He serves as Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and directs the
Postdoctoral Training Program in the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of
Genetics and Genomics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of
Medicine.
Lynn Jorde’s, PhD, laboratory has conducted studies of human genetic variation,
high-altitude adaptation, the genetic basis of human limb malformations, and the
genetics of common diseases such as hypertension, juvenile idiopathic arthritis,
and inflammatory bowel disease. He is the Executive Director of the University
of Utah Genome Project, a large-scale multidisciplinary effort in which thousands
of members of Utah pedigrees are undergoing whole-genome DNA sequencing to
discover disease-causing genes and to develop more effective treatments for
disease.
8
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Nancy Cox, PhD, is a quantitative human geneticist with a long-standing research
program in identifying and characterizing the genetic component to common
diseases and related quantitative traits, including pharmacogenomics phenotypes.
The Genomic Medicine training grant at Vanderbilt University offers trainees
educational opportunities in quantitative human genetics, biomedical informatics,
and personalized medicine in a highly collaborative and collegial environment.
Central to Dr. Cox’s research program and to our program in Genomic Medicine
are the unique opportunities for discovery and translational research using BioVU,
the biobank at Vanderbilt University, with ~250,000 DNA samples linked to a high
quality electronic health record available on more than 2.5 million subjects.
H. Joseph Yost, PhD, is the Richard L. Stimson Presidential Endowed Chair
and Professor of Neurobiology & Anatomy, and Pediatrics at the University
of Utah. His research team works at the intersection between zebrafish
genetics, bioinformatics and the discovery of novel disease-causing mutations
in human genomes. They have generated zebrafish genetic models of human
congenital heart diseases (CHD), adult onset heart-failure, ciliopathies,
Kabuki Syndrome and other rare/orphan syndromes and diseases in
pediatrics. Their goals are to understand the gene regulatory networks that
contribute to diseases, and to train and mentor the next generation of
biomedical scientists, emphasizing on building pipelines for underrepresented
minorities, from primary schools through postdoctoral programs.
Jason Moore, PhD, is a computational human geneticist interested in
identifying genomic predictors of susceptibility to common human diseases
at the University of Pennsylvania. His focus is on developing artificial
intelligence and machine learning methods for identifying gene-gene and
gene-environment interactions in big data.
9
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Katherine (Kate) L. Nathanson, MD, is a Professor of Medicine, in the Division of
Translational Medicine and Human Genetics, and Genetics, and Deputy Director of
the Abramson Cancer Center at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University
of Pennsylvania. She is internationally recognized for both her clinical and
research expertise in cancer genetics/genomics. Her research focuses on both
inherited susceptibility to cancer and somatic genetic characterization of tumors,
with interests across multiple tumor types, including testicular germ cell tumors,
hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, melanoma and neuroendocrine tumors.
Scott Roberts, PhD, at the University of Michigan, conducts research on the
psychological and behavioral impact of receiving genetic disease risk information,
with work in this area focused on Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and direct-to-
consumer genetic testing contexts. He directs several training programs, including
the University of Michigan’s Public Health Genetics certificate program, a dual
degree program in genetic counseling and public health, and a NHGRI-funded ELSI
Research Fellowship program.
Jeanette Papp, PhD, feels that one of the more rewarding paths in her
scientific career has taken toward furthering genomic discovery has been
through collaborations with young scientists coming through the programs at
UCLA. She is currently the PI of the NHGRI-funded Genomic Analysis and
Interpretation predoctoral T32 program, and has had the privilege of advising
trainees on a wide variety of genomic research. In her own research, she
focuses on gene localization, and developing integrated software solutions
for managing and analyzing genomic data.
10
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
Dr. Peter Park, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical
School, is a computational biologist specializing in computational and statistical
analysis of high-throughput sequencing data in epigenomics and cancer
genomics (http://compbio.hms.harvard.edu). Originally trained in applied
mathematics at Caltech, he was introduced to molecular biology and genetics during
his postdoctoral studies in biostatistics. His laboratory has made significant
contributions to several NIH consortia, including ENCODE, TCGA, and 4DN. He is
a co-leader of the Cancer Data Sciences Program at Harvard/Dana-Farber Cancer
Center and a member of the Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women's Hospital
and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
Thomas Pearson, MD, MPH, PhD, is a Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine
at the University of Florida. He directs the PARADIGM training program,
integrated into the Translational Workforce Development Program, for the UF
Clinical and Translational Science Award Program. This integration provides
PARADIGM Scholars access to professional skill building seminars, grant-writing
workshops, and career development opportunities in industry, entrepreneurism,
regulatory affairs, and education. His research has focused on cardiovascular
epidemiology with recent interest in Precision Public Health and its interaction with
Precision Medicine.
Julie Johnson, PharmD, at the University of Florida, is an international leader
in pharmacogenomics and implementation of precision medicine approaches into
clinical practice. She is currently the PI of a clinical group funded as part of
NHGRI’s IGNITE network. She has been dedicated over her 30-year career to
training the next generation of translational scientists.11
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
David Schwartz, PhD, large DNA molecules have been a research touchstone
since his invention of Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis. My expertise gained in
pioneering the first whole genome analysis system—Optical Mapping—to employ
single molecule analytes has helped guide subsequent projects and programs he
is involved in. His group’s research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
thrives on its interdisciplinary nature spanning biology (genomics / genetics) and
physical sciences. Current projects involve genome construction, cancer
genomics, continued invention of single molecule systems and their uses in novel
applications—advances comprising physical, statistical, algorithmic and
computational tools for genome analysis.
Arend Sidow’s, PhD, lab interests at Stanford University have been in
computational and experimental genomics, at the interface of function,
variation, and evolution. Most recently, we have focused on cancer
genomics and evolution and on genome assembly and reconstruction,
using novel data types and computational approaches.
Kara Dolinski, PhD, is the Director of the Genome Databases Group at
Princeton University. Her group develops database tools that provide a
handle on functional and comparative genomics data for biomedical
researchers. Her group curates the scientific literature to collect the
information and standardize it into regular formats in order to make it more
accessible to biologists and computer scientists. In addition, her group
develops software tools for searching, analyzing, and visualizing the vast
amounts of genomics data now readily available.12
Networking Lunch: Program Director Bios
John Storey, PhD, is a professor of statistics and genomics at Princeton
University. John’s research has been concerned with developing and
applying statistical methods to high-dimensional data in genomics. He is the
PI of the Princeton University NHGRI training grant.
Michael Snyder, PhD, is the Ascherman Professor and Chair of Genetics and the
Director of the Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford
University. He is a leader in the field of functional genomics and proteomics, and a
major participant- in the ENCODE project. His laboratory was the first to perform a
large-scale functional genomics project in any organism and has developed many
technologies used in genomics and proteomics research, including the development
of proteome chips, high resolution tiling arrays for the entire human genome, methods
for global mapping of transcription factor binding sites (ChIP-chip now replaced by
ChIP-seq), paired end sequencing for mapping of structural variation in eukaryotes,
de novo genome sequencing of genomes using high throughput technologies and
RNA-Seq. These technologies have been used to characterize genomes, proteomes
and regulatory networks. Seminal findings from the Snyder laboratory include the discovery that much
more of the human genome is transcribed and contains regulatory information than was previously
appreciated and that a high diversity of transcription factor binding occurs both between and within species.
He has also combined different state-of-the-art “omics” technologies to perform the first longitudinal
detailed integrative personal omics profile (iPOP) of person and used this to assess disease risk and
monitor disease states for personalized medicine. He also is a cofounder of several biotechnology
companies.
Mildred Cho, PhD, is a Professor in the Division of Medical Genetics of the
Department of Pediatrics and in the Department of Medicine at Stanford
University. Dr. Cho's major areas of interest are the ethical and social impacts of
genetic research and its applications, including to precision medicine, gene therapy,
behavior and mental health, the human microbiome, and synthetic biology. Her
recent interests include the implications of the applying data science and mobile
technologies to genomic data. In addition, she established the Benchside Ethics
Consultation Service at Stanford University and a national collaborative research
ethics consultation service.You can also read
