THE JOURNAL OF PRECISION MEDICINE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Program Director of Education, Outpatient Pharmacy Mayo Clinic Department of Pharmacy, Phoenix
Adrijana Kekic, Pharm D, is a Program Director of Education, Outpatient Pharmacy at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. She is active in clinical care, research and lecturing and has been involved in development of pharmacogenomics services and education. She is a licensed pharmacist in Arizona.
Dr. Kekic earned the Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Glendale, Arizona. She is board certified ambulatory care pharmacist through Board Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) and a member of BPS Ambulatory Care Committee. She holds a certification in Pharmacogenomics from University of Florida College of Pharmacy and is pursuing a Genomic Medicine certification from Stanford University.
Adrijana has served as an adjunct faculty at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy and an instructor, preceptor and residency preceptor at Mayo School of Medical Science. She is involved with several pharmacogenomics research projects and studies in palliative care, transplant care, anesthesia and cardiology. She sits on Pharmacogenomics Task Force at Mayo Clinic.
With two decades of clinical experience and expertise in medication therapy management , Adrijana continues to advance pharmacy practice and pharmacy leadership. She is a founder of a networking platform dedicated to high impact professional women in healthcare. She lives in Arizona with her husband and son, where they enjoy hiking. Besides pharmacogenomics, her interest include languages, history, visual arts, martial arts and healthy living.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer at ESSA
Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD is Chief Medical Officer at ESSA. Prior to joining ESSA, Dr. Cesano was the Chief Medical Officer of NanoString Inc from July 2015 until June 2019 where she focused in the development of translational and diagnostic multi-plexed assays for the characterization and measurement of mechanisms of immune response/resistance.
Prior to joining NanoString, Dr. Cesano was Chief Medical Officer at Cleave Biosciences, Inc. and before then she served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operations Officer at Nodality, Inc., where she built and led the R and D group, while providing the overall clinical vision for the organization. Between 1998 and 2008, Dr. Cesano held various management positions at Amgen, Biogen Idec and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where she helped to advance various oncology drugs through late stage development and FDA approvals.
Early in her professional career Dr. Cesano spent 12 years conducting research in tumor immunology, including nine years at the Wistar Institute, an NCI Basic Cancer Center connected with the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer and Founder, RARE Science
Christina Waters has been responsible for leading medical research in a broad range of organizations ranging from academia and disease - focused non-profits to biotech and large pharmaceutical companies. Her broad range of experience in basic, translational, and clinical research and business strategies converge to specialize in the development of new approaches to personalized medicine and health, creation of synergistic partnerships and implementation of new innovative research initiatives.
She is CEO and Founder of RARE Science, a non-profit research organization that enables the rare scientific research community to accelerate discovery of therapeutic solutions for patients with rare disease. In addition, she serves as a Scientific Advisory board member, for Global Genes|Rare Project, which focuses on advocacy and education for the rare disease community and as a Senior Advisor for Personalized Medicine and Health Informatics for Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Personalized Medicine and Health Sciences Practices serving academic and research organizations across the healthcare continuum.
Dr. Waters received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis as a NIH Biotechnology Fellow. She was a Postdoctoral Scholar and Associate of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology. Dr. Waters also completed an NIH Postdoctoral fellowship at University of California, Berkeley, and received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from San Diego State University. Dr. Waters received her MBA from University of California, Los Angeles.
Job Titles:
- Simon Flexner Professor and Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Director, Penn Center for Precision Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
David B. Roth, MD, PhD, joined Penn Medicine in 2011 as the Simon Flexner Professor and Chair of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Previously he was the Irene Diamond Professor of Immunology, Chair of the Department of Pathology, and Director of the MD/PhD Program at NYU Langone Medical Center. Around 2006, Roth's lab had generated genetically engineered mice that rapidly developed lymphomas that displayed incredible levels of genomic instability by disabling some of the regulatory controls associated with the normal mechanism of antigen receptor gene assembly. Every animal developed lymphoma within a few weeks, and, to understand the mechanism, the Roth Lab sought to characterize the genomic alterations in the tumor cells. To accomplish this, the lab began to develop capabilities for detecting and characterizing genomic rearrangements by "next generation sequencing" or NGS.
He moved to Penn in 2011 to take the Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. As part of his continuing efforts to bolster next-generation sequencing diagnostics, he set up the Center for Personalized Diagnostics, a joint effort between the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center. He is a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists, an elected member of the American Association of Physicians, and an elected member and past president of the American Association of University Pathologists.
In 2016, David was named the founding Director of Penn's new Center for Precision Medicine. The mission of this new Center is to take advantage of Penn's many strengths in biomedical research, developing synergies with our clinical programs to create and implement precision medicine-based clinical care pathways. One of the main roles of the Center will be to provide and organize the resources to allow us to design, test, and implement systems that allow each individual patient to receive the correct treatment (or prevention) at the right time.
Dr Howard McLeod is an internationally recognized expert in precision medicine, having made novel contributions at the discovery, translation, implementation, and policy levels. He is the Medical Director for Precision Medicine at the Geriatric Oncology Consortium and a Professor at the University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy. Dr McLeod chaired the NHGRI eMERGE network external scientific panel for the past decade and was a recent member of both the FDA committee on Clinical Pharmacology and the NIH Human Genome Advisory Council. Dr McLeod has been recognized as a Fellow of both the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and was recently ranked #1 USA/#2 World for Pharmacogenomics. He has also been an active Board Member and/or Founder for over a dozen privately held and publicly traded companies. Howard has published over 575 peer reviewed papers on pharmacogenomics, applied therapeutics, or clinical pharmacology and continues to work to advance innovative healthcare.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Diagnostic Development, Precision Medicine and Biosamples Within the R & D Oncology Unit at AstraZeneca
Dr Mark Fidock is Vice President of Diagnostic Development, Precision Medicine and Biosamples within the R&D Oncology Unit at AstraZeneca, located in the UK. He received his PhD from the University of East Anglia in Molecular Pharmacology. Mark gained extensive experience in drug development holding senior positions at Pfizer and a global CRO where he built a successful translational medicine department.
Mark joined AstraZeneca in 2013 appointed to the role of Head Diagnostic Development with overall accountability for all clinical testing activities and scientific investigations that enable diagnostic development for regulatory approval. He leads a global multidisciplinary team in the delivery of Companion Diagnostics across both the AZ Oncology and Biopharmaceuticals clinical portfolio.
By 2020, Mark's leadership in Precision Medicine had contributed to >40 diagnostic approvals in 3 major markets linked to 4 AZ targeted therapies. Achieving industry firsts such as a companion diagnostic for circulating tumour DNA to maximise patient access to our targeted therapy in Oncology and the first point-of-care complementary diagnostic in Biopharmaceuticals to enable better disease management and physician decision making.
During the pandemic Mark provided the strategic leadership and was accountable for the global operational delivery of laboratories within an internal PCR testing programme for COVID-19; this included gaining approvals for US CLIA and Europe ISO17025 lab accreditations. This programme ensured AZ employees had a safe working environment and maintained the supply chain of critical medicines for patients.
Mark has published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and edited the Handbook of Biomarkers and Precision Medicine. As an internationally recognized expert in Precision Medicine, he holds an honorary position at the University of Cambridge and a member of the Institute of Translational and Stratified Medicine, Plymouth, and Radboud University Medical Centre scientific advisory boards.
Job Titles:
- Director, Institute for Precision Medicine, Pittsburgh Foundation Chair, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Adrian Lee is the Pittsburgh Foundation Chair and Director of the Institute for Precision Medicine (IPM), a joint effort by UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh to move biomedical research into personalized well-being and clinical care. He is also Professor of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology and Human Genetics at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.
Dr. Lee received B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in England, and came to San Antonio, Texas for his postdoctoral studies. He was subsequently recruited to Baylor College of Medicine and to the University of Pittsburgh in 2010.
Since his recruitment to the University of Pittsburgh in 2010, Dr. Lee has had a key role in shaping precision medicine research at the University of Pittsburgh and personalized care at UPMC. An example of the early progress in precision medicine at Pitt and UPMC is research and implementation of pharmacogenomics, and development of computational systems and architecture for sharing of clinical and genomic data both at the University of Pittsburgh and in the UPMC healthcare system. In cancer, efforts are underway to enhance genomic testing and use of targeted therapies.
The goal of Dr. Lee's laboratory is to translate basic cell and molecular research findings into the understanding and treatment of breast cancer. Dr. Lee has examined the effect of intratumor heterogeneity on prognostic tests in breast cancer, and is currently leading an effort to sequencing metastatic breast cancers to identify vulnerabilities for novel precision therapies. Dr Lee has published over 180 peer reviewed research articles. His laboratory is supported by funding from the NIH, Department of Defense, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and other sources. Dr. Lee serves on numerous national peer-review committees and is on the Editorial Board of several journals. In 2018 Dr. Lee was awarded the Terri L Chapman award from Susan G. Komen, the PNC Elsie Hillman Distinguished Scholar award, and the University of Pittsburgh Biomedical Graduate Scholar Association (BGSA) Distinguished Mentor Award.
Job Titles:
- Medical Director, HM International Patients' Program, UCSD Director, Global Health Initiatives, UCSD Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSD
Dr. Deepak Asudani completed a residency in Internal Medicine from New York Medical College, Metropolitan Hospital Center, where he also served as assistant chief medical resident. He earned his Bachelors in Medicine and Bachelors in Surgery medical degree (MBBS) from the University of Rajasthan - Ravindra Nath Tagore Medical College in Udaipur, India. He holds a Masters in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. Dr. Asudani is a Certified Physician Executive (CPE) from the Credentialing Committee in Medical Management/American Association of Physicians Leadership, and holds certification in Genetics and Genomics from Stanford University Center for Professional Development, Palo Alto, CA. He is also an alumnus of UC San Diego Health Leadership Academy and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Executive leadership program.
Dr. Asudani is board-certified in internal medicine, is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Diego and is engaged in several academic, clinical, and leadership responsibilities. He serves as Vice Chief of Division of Hospital Medicine at UCSD and also is Medical Director for UCSD's International Patients' Program. He is part of several UC San Diego health steering committees and also multiple Division of Hospital Medicine committees.
Dr. George Poste is the Del E. Webb Professor of Health Innovation and Chief Scientist at The Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative (CASI) at Arizona State University (ASU) (http://www.casi.asu.edu). This program integrates research in genomics, synthetic biology and high performance computing to study the altered regulation of molecular networks in human diseases to develop new diagnostic tests for precision medicine and the remote monitoring of health status using miniaturized body sensors and mobile devices. He assumed this post in 2009. From 2003 to 2009 he directed and built The Biodesign Institute at ASU (https://biodesign.asu.edu/).
As of January 2021, Dr. Poste assumed additional leadership of the new Institute for Future Health (IFH) a joint venture between ASU and the University of Arizona in precision health and digital health. This focuses on remote health monitoring technologies with a focus on the use of digital psychiatry and cognitive computing to address the growing burden of mental illness.
He has published more than 400 research papers and edited 14 books on pharmaceutical technologies, cancer and infectious diseases. He has received honorary degrees in science, law and medicine and was awarded the rank of Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to research and international security.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Exelixis, Caris Life Sciences, MediSix (Singapore) and the Scientific Advisory Boards of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute at the University of Michigan, Synthetic Genomics, Vir Biotechnology, iNanoBio and Haplogen GmbH (Vienna).
From 1992 to 1999, he was Chief Science and Technology Officer and President, R&D, of SmithKline Beecham (SB) (now GlaxoSmithKilne). During his tenure at SB, he was associated with the successful registration of multiple drug, vaccine and diagnostic products. He has served on the Board of Directors of Illumina, Structural Genomix (acquired by Lilly), Orchid Biosciences (acquired by LapCorp), diaDexus (acquired by Vaxgen), Monsanto (acquired by Bayer) and Advanced PCS (acquired by CVS-Caremark).
In 2004 he was named "R&D Scientist of the Year" by R&D Magazine, he received the Einstein award from the Global Business Leadership Council (2006), the Scrip Lifetime Achievement award voted by the leadership of the global pharmaceutical industry (2009) and the Arizona Bioindustry Association Pioneer Award (2016).
He is a Fellow of the U.K. Royal Society, the Royal College of Pathologists, the U.K. Academy of Medicine and The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a member of EU Academy of Sciences, the Council for Foreign Relations and the US Academy of Medicine Forum on Global Health. He served as a member of the Defense Science Board of the U.S. Department of Defense and currently serves on advisory committees for several U.S. government agencies in defense, intelligence, national security and healthcare and is an Ex-Officio Member of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy ( Khalifa Institute )
- Executive Director of the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy
Dr. Shaw is executive director of the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy (Khalifa Institute). She joined The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2013, bringing an extensive background in science leadership and education. Prior to joining MD Anderson, Dr. Shaw spent four years with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a flagship project of the National Cancer Institute focused on accelerating understanding of the molecular basis of cancer. Dr. Shaw earned undergraduate degrees in Spanish and Biology at the College of William and Mary, and completed her doctoral degree in cell and developmental biology at Harvard University.
Dr. Ruben Bonilla-Guerrero serves as Innovative Genomics (IGx) Laboratories' Chief Medical Officer. He is a laboratory professional, who is Mayo Clinic trained in Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical Biochemical Genetics, and Molecular Biology, a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics, the American Association of Clinical Chemistry, and is an active member of several distinguished professional organizations. Dr. Ruben Bonilla-Guerrero board certified in Clinical Biochemical Genetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG) and in Molecular Biology by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), with expertise in clinical pharmacology, inborn errors of metabolism, genetics, vaccine development, and clinical pharmacogenomics. Having authored several peer-reviewed medical publications including book chapters, Dr. Bonilla-Guerrero is also the winner of the Henry Christian Award from the American Federation for Medical Research (2002) and the Mayo Clinic Department of Internal Medicine Outstanding Research Fellow Award (2003). Previously, Dr. Bonilla-Guerrero simultaneously served as Laboratory Director, Associate Medical Director, and Medical Director of Medical Affairs for the department of Genetics at Quest Diagnostics, as well as concurrently served as the Medical Director and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Admera Health. He is responsible for the clinical genomic-based testing at Innovative Gx Laboratories and leads the Medical Affairs team.
Job Titles:
- President / CEO of Rady Children 's Institute for Genomic Medicine
- President and Chief Executive Officer, Rady Children 's Institute for Genomic Medicine
Dr. Stephen F. Kingsmore is President/CEO of Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine where he leads a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, physicians and researchers who are pioneering the use of rapid Whole Genome Sequencing to enable precise diagnoses for critically-ill newborns.
Among his achievements, Dr. Kingsmore holds the Guinness World Record for achieving the fastest molecular diagnosis using whole genome sequencing in just 19.5 hours.
Before being selected to lead RCIGM, he was the Dee Lyons/Missouri Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine at Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City. Dr. Kingsmore received MB ChB BAO BSc and DSc degrees from the Queen's University of Belfast. He trained in clinical immunology in Northern Ireland and did residency in internal medicine and fellowship in rheumatology at Duke University Medical Center.
Job Titles:
- President, Precision Medicine Coalition
Edward Abrahams, Ph.D., is the President of PMC. Representing innovators, scientists, patients, providers and payers, PMC promotes the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts, services and products for the benefit of patients and the health system. It has grown from its original 18 founding members in 2004 to more than 200 today.
Previously, Dr. Abrahams was the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, where he spearheaded the successful effort that led to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's investment of $200 million to commercialize biotechnology in the state. Earlier, he had been Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations at the University of Pennsylvania and held a senior administrative position at Brown University.
Dr. Abrahams worked for seven years for the U.S. Congress, including as a legislative assistant to Senator Lloyd Bentsen, as an economist for the Joint Economic Committee under the chairmanship of Representative Lee Hamilton, and as a AAAS Congressional Fellow for Representative Edward J. Markey.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Head of Diagnostics, Worldwide R & D, Pfizer Inc
Hakan leads Pfizer's Companion Diagnostics efforts across the Worldwide R&D organization and is also responsible for Pfizer's internal Biobank group. His formal education includes BS (1983) and MS (1984) degrees from Ankara University in Turkey, PhD (1990) in Quantitative Genetics from the University of Minnesota as a Rotary Foundation Scholar, and postdoctoral studies in genetics at the University of California-Davis (1990-94).
Hakan worked in the biotech industry in human genetics and statistical genetics fields across multiple disease areas before moving to Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals in 1998 to direct human genetics, statistical genetics and pharmacogenetics programs. Following the merger of Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis with Pfizer, he has held positions of increasing responsibility in Clinical Pharmacogenomics, Molecular Profiling, and Translational Oncology. Hakan interacted closely with Pfizer's Executive Leadership Team and the Board of Directors to define and implement Pfizer's current companion diagnostics strategy. One of his most significant professional accomplishments was to lead the companion diagnostics program for Xalkori® (Crizotinib), Pfizer's flagship program in companion diagnostics. Hakan served on the clinical development and drug/diagnostics submission teams and led the companion diagnostics program to a successful delivery, resulting in simultaneous FDA approvals of both the drug and the companion diagnostic test in 2011.
Hakan was then promoted to his current role to provide companion diagnostics leadership across Pfizer's pharmaceutical pipeline. He led the internal efforts that resulted in companion diagnostics partnerships with Dako/Agilent and Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, among others. Hakan's contributions to precision medicine and companion diagnostics have been widely recognized through both internal and external awards, frequent speaking engagements, and press coverage. He is the author of over 30 referred scientific articles as well as many other papers, abstracts and book chapters.
Hakan is keenly interested in technologies for identification of patient sub-groups for targeted treatments and development of companion diagnostics to advance Precision Medicine for the improvement of individualized health care. He is an active member of civic clubs, and enjoys cycling, soccer, and stand-up paddle-boarding.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Alva10
Hannah Mamuszka is the Founder and CEO of Alva10, which focuses on bringing diagnostics to the forefront of Precision Medicine by partnering with payers and employers with diagnostic developers to create a new value-based healthcare model that pulls diagnostics into the market. Ms Mamuszka has spent more than 20 years in biotech and diagnostics, with extensive experience in both drug and diagnostic development, validation, and commercialization. Prior to founding Alva10, Ms Mamuszka was VP of Business Development at Exosome Diagnostics, where she led some of the earliest deals in the liquid biopsy diagnostic space. Earlier in her career, she was Global Director for Pharma Services at Exiqon A/S (now QIAGEN), and worked as a scientist on for Bortezmib (Velcade) at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda). She is a Board Director at Bionano Genomics (BNGO), regularly speaks on issues regarding advancement of technology in healthcare, and writes a column on the value of diagnostics for the Journal of Precision Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Burris served as president of ASCO in 2019-2020 and is serving as Chair of the Board for the 2020-2021 term. He also currently serves on the Board of ASCO's Conquer Cancer Foundation. Additionally in 2014, Dr. Burris was selected by his peers as a Giant of Cancer Care for his achievements in drug development.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Director of Cancer Immunotherapeutics, Hillman Cancer Center
Jason J. Luke, M.D., F.A.C.P. is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Hillman Cancer Center where he is the Director of the Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center. Dr. Luke specializes in early phase drug development for solid tumors (particularly novel immunotherapeutics and biomarkers of immunotherapy activity) as well as the management of cutaneous oncology, particularly patients with melanoma. Dr. Luke has been a lead national investigator on clinical trials of immunotherapies including but not limited to anti-PD1/L1, CTLA4, many secondary checkpoints, bispecific approaches (checkpoint, CD3 and cytokine), metabolism modifiers (IDO, A2Ar/CD73/CD39 and arginase), innate agonists of STING, TLRs and oncolytic virus as well as solid tumor cellular therapies (TCRs and CART). Dr. Luke has been a major contributor toward the investigation of radiation and the microbiome in relation to cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Luke's major translational research focus leverages large scale informatics to advance cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Luke received his M.D. from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago. He then pursued internship and residency at the Boston University Medical Center followed by medicine and medical oncology fellowships at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Following fellowship, Dr. Luke was a tenure-track, Type 1 Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as Staff Physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Thereafter Dr. Luke was an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. Dr. Luke is actively involved in several professional societies including the Society for Melanoma Research, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Luke has served as the chair of the education committee and as a member of the scientific committee for the melanoma track of the ASCO annual meeting. Dr. Luke has received several awards for research and clinical care including the Melanoma Research Foundation Humanitarian Award, Crain's 40 under 40, Department of Defense Career Development Award, Paul Calabresi Career Development in Clinical Oncology Award (K12), ASCO Merit Award as well as Young Investigator Awards from the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Cancer Research Foundation and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO. Dr. Luke's research has been supported by ASCO, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the National Cancer Institute.
Job Titles:
- Founder, Precision Medicine Advisors
Founder, Precision Medicine Advisors; Adjunct Associate Professor, Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, UCSF
Jeanette McCarthy is a UC Berkeley trained genetic epidemiologist and spent the early part of her career in industry at Millennium Pharmaceuticals before transitioning to academia. She currently holds adjunct faculty positions at Duke University and UCSF. Her previous research had focused on the genetic underpinnings of complex diseases, both infectious and chronic. More recently, she has become a leading educator in the field of genomic and precision medicine involved in demystifying genomics for non-technical audiences, including health care providers, patients and other stakeholders. In 2014 she helped launch the first consumer-facing magazine in this field, Genome, where she served as editor-in-chief until 2016. She teaches genomic and precision medicine through UCSF and UC Berkeley Extension and online through Coursera and through the Precision Medicine Academy (precisionmedicineacademy.org). She also designs and delivers custom workshops and courses to international audiences through her consulting business (precisionmedicineadvisors.com). Jeanette is coauthor of the new book, Precision Medicine: A Guide to Genomics in Clinical Practice (2016, McGraw Hill Education).
Job Titles:
- Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health
John Quackenbush is Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
John's PhD was in Theoretical Physics, in 1992 he received a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to work on the Human Genome Project, which led him from the Salk Institute to Stanford University to The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) before moving to Harvard in 2005. John's research uses massive data from DNA sequencing and other assays to model functional networks in human cells. By comparing networks between groups of individuals, he has found new drug targets, explored chemotherapy resistance, and investigated differences between the sexes. He has made pioneering discoveries about how the genetic variants work together to determine our traits.
John has published more than 280 papers; his work has been cited more than 65,000 times. He has received numerous awards for his work, including recognition in 2013 as a White House Open Science Champion of Change. He is also the co-founder of Genospace, a precision medicine software company that was purchased by the Hospital Corporation of America in 2017.
Job Titles:
- President and Founder, Health Collaborations LLC
Dr. Kamala Maddali is a biotech, pharma, diagnostics and life sciences executive and board advisor with over 17 years of deep expertise in Precision Medicine implementing strategic initiatives across many Fortune 500 companies, most notably Merck and Co., Quintiles and Quest Diagnostics. She holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Tirupati, India. She currently is an executive advisor to companies focused in Precision Medicine, Artificial Intelligence and digital health companies in healthcare. Dr. Maddali won the 2016 Healthcare Heroes Finalist Award for "Innovation-Individual" category at NJBIZ. Dr. Maddali received many awards focused on "women empowerment in Healthcare" from several organizations in the USA. Dr. Maddali served as a Vice Chair for the Women in Bio (WIB) Philadelphia chapter. The Women In Bio organization promotes careers, leadership, and entrepreneurship for women in the life sciences. Dr. Maddali was invited in 2017 for the NYSE Closing bell ringing ceremony. Dr. Maddali was interviewed by CNBC in December 2018 on Precision Medicine advancements and Blockchain.
Job Titles:
- Director of the American Medical Association 's Personalized Medicine
- Member of the Institute of Medicine 's Roundtable
- Senior Director, Clinical Development, Myriad Women 's Health
Katherine (Katie) Johansen Taber, PhD, is Director of the American Medical Association's Personalized Medicine program which focusses on educating physicians about the clinical implementation of genetics and on identifying and managing genetics policy issues affecting health care providers. She also advises the AMA Board of Trustees and the House of Delegates on genetics issues such as the oversight of genetic testing, gene patenting, stem call research, and newborn screening.
Katie is a member of the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Translating Genomics-based Research for Health, the VA National Research Advisory Council, the El Camino Hospital Genomic Medicine Institute Advisory Council, and a number of other genetics-focused workgroups. She serves as the Assistant Secretary for the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health and also represents the AMA as a Dissemination and Implementation Partner for the United States Preventive Services Task Force. Katie earned her PhD in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and conducted post-doctoral research at the USDA. She has held teaching appointments at UCLA, California State Polytechnic University, University of Idaho, and Columbia College Chicago.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Co - Founder and Executive Director, GTMRx
As executive director, Katherine Capps provides leadership by supporting GTMRx Institute's mission and goals. She establishes and manages relationships with stakeholders across the health care spectrum. As a GTMR Institute Founding Board member, she works alongside other board members and collaboratively sets the strategy for the growth and activities of the organization.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Health Economics and Health Services Research
- Professor, Health Economics and Health Services Research, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, UCSD
Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD, is Professor of Health Economics and Health Services Research in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at UCSF. A leader in the application of new technologies to improve healthcare, she is the Founding Director of the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS). She is a core faculty member in the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is affiliated with the Institute for Human Genetics, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Baker Computational Health Sciences Institute, and Global Health Sciences.
Kathryn focuses on the value of new technologies and how to most effectively and efficiently implement them into health care. Her core specialty is personalized (or precision) medicine - a new era of healthcare where medical interventions can be tailored to individual patients based on their unique genetic make-up. Her work spans multiple disciplines, including basic, clinical and social sciences, and brings together leading experts in academia, industry, healthcare, payers, and government. Her pioneering research on the application of health services research to personalized medicine has revealed insights on how to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and their use in the clinic. Kathryn led one of the earliest studies on the societal implications of pharmacogenomics, underscoring its potential to reduce the incidence of adverse drug reactions (JAMA, 2001). Kathryn has also conducted seminal work on HIV, as her analysis of HIV home testing informed the FDA's decision to approve the first home collection HIV test (New England Journal of Medicine, 1995).
Kathryn has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles in major journals, including JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and Health Affairs and has had continuous funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health as a Principal Investigator for over 25 years. She currently serves on the editorial boards for Health Affairs (rated as the top policy journal), Value in Health (a leading outcomes research journal), JAMA Internal Medicine, Genetics in Medicine (section editor), and leading journals on precision medicine. Kathryn has served on national and international scientific advisory committees and workshops including the Board of Directors for GenomeCanada, National Academy of Medicine, Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. She has also served as an advisor to various international and industry organizations, including 50 biotechnology companies and venture capital firms. In 2016, she was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation award to pursue work on global health. She is currently serving as Chair of the Global Economics and Evaluation of Clinical Sequencing Working Group, and is serving on an evidence review committee for the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).
Job Titles:
- Head of Pharmacogenomics, Invitae
Kristine Ashcraft is a molecular biologist by training and the Head of Pharmacogenomics at Invitae. Ms. Ashcraft was the Chief Executive Officer of Youscript, Inc. during its acquisition by Invitae. She has worked in precision medicine since 2000 and was recently named one of the 25 Leading Global Voices in the space. Ms. Ashcraft has authored multiple publications on the clinical and economic benefits of pharmacogenomic testing including one lauded as one of the most influential publications at a recent AMIA meeting. She has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and NBC Nightly News and has spoken at numerous Precision Medicine Conferences. She is committed to being a catalyst in the adoption of precision medicine.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Precision Medicine & Precision Genomics, Intermountain Healthcare
Lincoln Nadauld, MD, PhD, is the Executive Director of Precision Medicine and Precision Genomics at Intermountain Healthcare where he oversees the clinical implementation of genomic cancer medicine across its 22 hospitals and 180 physician clinics. Dr. Nadauld completed clinical training in Medical Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in solid tumor genomics. He remains on the research faculty at Stanford, focusing on cancer genomics and personalized medicine. His work has been published extensively. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Gastric Cancer Foundation and regularly reviews grant applications on behalf of the Department of Defense. Dr. Nadauld recently participated in the Precision Medicine Initiative Summit and roundtables at the White House with former President Barack Obama. He also attended former Vice President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot Summit, where the Oncology Precision Network (OPeN), spearheaded by Dr. Nadauld, was mentioned among the vice president's remarks. OPeN is a consortium of healthcare partners working to advance data-sharing in precision medicine, including genomic information and outcomes. Dr. Nadauld is married with five children, and enjoys attending their many activities and events, water sports, fishing, and other athletic pursuits.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President & Global Medical Officer, Siemens Healthineers
Dr. Luis Lasalvia, Vice President Siemens Healthineers, is pursuing effective, compassionate and patient centric healthcare. He has been guest speaker at approx. 500 conferences and events around the world, submitted several patents in the US and Europe, and authored more than 50 papers and articles in peer review journals, and other prestigious publications.
Job Titles:
- Is Director
- Senior Director and Diagnostic Lead, Oncology Program, Pfizer
Marielena Mata, PhD is Director and Diagnostic Lead at Pfizer, where she Leads the development and commercialization efforts of companion diagnostics for Oncology assets from early to late development. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Mata was Head of Personalized Medicine and Companion Diagnostics at GSK where she was responsible for implementation of the Precision Medicine strategy across the GSK portfolio encompassing technical, development, regulatory, commercial, IP and business development efforts. Previously, at Janssen R&D, Inc. Dr. Mata was responsible for the design and implementation of biomarker strategies for Oncology assets, where she led the development of Circulating Tumor Cell based assays as companion diagnostics as well as the development of next generation circulating tumor cell isolation technologies based on microfluidics. Earlier, she established and managed the Biomarkers biobank. In addition to her work in Oncology drug development, Maty, as she is known, has a strong interest in women's career development and mentorship and is the recipient of the AWIS-PHL Elizabeth Bingham Mentoring Award. Dr. Mata obtained a BA in Biology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her PhD and postdoctoral training in Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientific Officer at Delfi Diagnostics
Nicholas (Nic) Dracopoli, Ph.D. is Chief Scientific Officer at Delfi Diagnostics, a seed stage cancer diagnostics company based in Baltimore, MD. Previously he led oncology translational science teams at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Janssen. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, he spent several years in the biotechnology industry at Sequana Therapeutics.
Nic obtained his bachelor's degree and doctorate from the University of London and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, NY and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA. Subsequently, he served as an Assistant Director at the Whitehead/MIT Genome Center and as a Section Chief at the National Center for Human Genome Research at the National Institutes of Health. Nic has authored more than 70 scientific publications and has extensive experience in the fields of genomics, molecular biology and cancer research.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Research of the Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine
- Principal Investigator of the NIH
- Professor of Medicine
Professor of Medicine; Director, G2P Research Program; Associate Director for Research, Partners Personalized Medicine, Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School
Robert C. Green, MD, MPH is a medical geneticist and physician-scientist who directs the G2P Research Program in translational genomics and health outcomes in the Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Green is principal investigator of the NIH-funded REVEAL Study, in which a cross-disciplinary team has conducted 4 separate multi-center randomized clinical trials since 2000, collectively enrolling 1100 individuals in order to explore emerging themes in translational genomics. Dr. Green also co-directs the NIH-funded PGen Study, one of the first prospective studies of direct-to-consumer genetic testing services. He is principal investigator of the MedSeq Project, the first NIH-funded randomized trial to explore the use of whole genome sequencing in the clinical practice of medicine and co-directs the BabySeq Project, the first NIH-funded trial of sequencing in newborns. The MedSeq and BabySeq Projects apply genome sequencing both in patients who are affected with hereditary disease and in those who are healthy, in order to study downstream impact on health, behavior and health care costs.
Dr. Green is currently Associate Director for Research of the Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine, a Board Member of the Council for Responsible Genetics and a member of the Informed Cohort Oversight Boards for both the Children's Hospital Boston Gene Partnership Program and the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative. He was the lead author of the recently published recommendations from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics for management of incidental findings in clinical sequencing.
Job Titles:
- Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Biomarker Development and Companion Diagnostics Genentech, Inc
Abhijit "Ron" Mazumder obtained his B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University, his PhD from the University of Maryland, and his MBA from Lehigh University. After working in several biotech companies, he joined Johnson & Johnson in 2003 and led molecular diagnostics programs and biomarker collaborations. In 2008, he joined Merck as a Senior Director and Biomarker Leader in External Discovery where he was responsible for the development of pharmacodynamic and predictive biomarkers. Ron rejoined Johnson & Johnson in 2010 and led the development of companion and complementary diagnostics across the therapeutic pipeline. In October 2016, he joined Genentech where he is currently Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Biomarker Development and Companion Diagnostics.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer, SomaLogic
Roy Smythe, M.D., joined SomaLogic in November 2018 as Chief Executive Officer. During the course of his career, Dr. Smythe has been an internationally recognized surgeon, biomedical scientist, academician, health system administrator and healthcare business entrepreneur.
While in medical school at Texas A&M, he was a Charles A. Dana Foundation Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School of Business. Following medical school, he trained in general surgery, surgical oncology and thoracic surgery and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in molecular therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania. His medical and translational research career then began at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he was the recipient of NIH and numerous other funding awards. He subsequently chaired the Department of Surgery at Baylor Scott & White Health System and the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, where he was the Roney Endowed Chair, and later became the Medical Director of Innovation and Executive Vice President for Institute Development before moving into expanded roles in corporate healthcare.
Dr. Smythe came to SomaLogic from Royal Philips, where he served as Global Chief Medical Officer for Strategy and Partnerships. Before joining Philips, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Valence Health, a Chicago-based healthcare company. He held the same title previously at AVIA, a healthcare technology accelerator.
A highly sought-after lecturer and the author of more than 300 papers, abstracts and essays in academic, literary and humanities publications, Dr. Smythe is also currently a member of more than 20 U.S. national learned societies.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President, Precision Medicine, Bristol Myers Squibb
Sarah is currently the Vice President, of Precision Medicine for Bristol Myers Squibb. She has more than 20 years of industry experience in leading R&D organizations, CLIA and GLP laboratories, device manufacturing, consortiums, assessment and implementation of technology strategies, and development of in vitro diagnostics. In addition, she continuously works to further education and awareness in the Precision Medicine and Companion Diagnostic spaces. Prior to joining BMS, Sarah was the Vice President, Precision Medicine & Companion Diagnostics for Celgene, where she founded their Precision Medicine Organization in 2016. She joined Celgene after having held the position as the Global Head of Future Precision Medicine for Novartis, where the team submitted and gained approval for multiple Health Authority applications; including the first pre-market approval for a distributable NGS CDx.
Sarah has also held multiple roles with increasing responsibility within Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) including Global Head of Operations, Assay Program Leader for Companion Diagnostics Center of Excellence, Director of Materials Process Development and Enabling Technologies. At JNJ, Sarah co-led or was the operating company's representative on key corporate strategic initiatives including, but not limited to: Nanotechnology, Critical to Quality Flow Down and Pathology Business Opportunity Team and had accountability for CLIA laboratories in the US and Europe. In addition, her prior experience also includes start-up and establishment of a GLP laboratory, technical support and quality assurance. Sarah has BS and MS degrees in Chemistry and Biology from Northern Illinois University, Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) and an MBA from California State University.
Job Titles:
- Agilent Partner on Cancer Analysis Product
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientific Officer, Covance Senior Vice President, LabCorp
- Senior Vice President at Laboratory Corporation of America
Dr Anderson is a Senior Vice President at Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp), and the Chief Scientific Officer for the Covance Drug Development business of LabCorp. He has been with the LabCorp organization for 26 years and has held a variety of positions including director of operations for ViroMed Laboratories, director of operations for Monogram Biosciences, director of operations for the Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology, director of operations for Integrated Oncology and Genetics, national director of Research and Development, and global head of LabCorp Clinical Trials. Dr Anderson is a member of a variety of professional societies including the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Association for Molecular Pathology.
Dr Anderson's research interests are in the development and applications for molecular diagnostics, including several examples of companion diagnostics and pharmacogenomics assays. He has authored more than 175 articles and abstracts published in such journals as Genetics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Clinical Chemistry, the Journal of Infectious Disease, Human Pathology, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oncogene, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Clinical Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research, BMC Cancer, the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Investigation and Expert Reviews in Molecular Diagnostics.
He has a PhD in genetics from Iowa State University and was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at the Waksman Institute of Rutgers University.