Biographies

Dr. Athey’s recent research interests are in the creation and use of bioinformatics pipelines and machine learning methods to improve the efficacy of psychiatric pharmacogenomics. This will allow caregivers and patients to identify the most effective medications for their illness, avoiding adverse drug reactions and adverse events, improving dosing recommendations, and potentially increasing medication adherence. This is leading to the creation of the next generation of Pharmacogenomics tests that his laboratory is now clinically validating for translation to use in industry.

Dr. Athey has led many well-known data intensive projects including the DARPA Telepathology Program, National Library of Medicine (NLM) Visible Human Project, the DARPA Virtual Soldier Project, and the NIH National Center for Integrative Biomedical Informatics (NCIBI). He was a pioneer in the UM NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) and founding Associate Director of the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICH-R). In addition, he was co-founder and co-director of the UM-wide Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) from 2015–2018. He has held significant consulting positions at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institutes for Health (NIH) Office of the Director (OD). He has been awarded the Peace Fellowship from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) for his work against Biological Terrorism. He is an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS).

The Burant laboratory focuses on the study of diabetes, with on-going research in many areas. They are interested in identifying the ways in which nutrients, drugs and biologics affect insulin sensitivity and the way that they lead to Type 2 Diabetes. They are evalu- ating these affects through clinical research, utilizing animal models of diabetes and insulin sensitivity, and through studying the underlying cellular pathways of energy metabolism. Additionally, they are interested in studying how new B-cells can be generated ex vivo for the treatment of both Type 1 and 2 Diabetes. They are utilizing novel techniques to prospectively isolate and differentiate adult pancreatic stem/progenitor cells into multiple pancreatic lineages.

The Burmeister laboratory aims at finding genes involved in behavioral, neurological, and psychiatric diseases, especially related to ataxia and depression. While ataxia is caused by numerous genes one at a time, many of which still need to be identified, genetics plays a minor role in risk for depression, and its interactions with environmental, lifestyle, and behavioral factors – diet, stress, sleep, drug use, exercise – need to be better understood. Genes for such common disorders are not deterministic, and a goal of our public engagement is to help the interested public in using their genetic information wisely. In both projects, there are strong collaborations across the University, the US and the world, particularly in Turkey and China.

Dr. Karnovsky’s background includes a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology (Russian Academy of Sciences), postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado at Boulder and nine years of bioinformatics work in the pharmaceutical industry (at Pharmacia and at Pfizer).

Dr. Karnovsky has broad experience in identification and validation of therapeutic targets in a variety of disease areas including antibacterials, CNS, and dermatology. She is also interested in structural aspect of drug/target interactions and the integration of chemical and genomic domains.

The overarching goal of Dr. Kretzler’s research is to define chronic organ dysfunction in mechanistic terms and use this knowledge for targeted therapeutic interventions. To reach this goal he has developed a translational research pipeline centered on integrated systems biology analysis of renal disease. Dr. Kretzler leads the NIH U54 Nephrotic Syndrome Research Network (Neptune) in the Rare Disease Clinical Research Network II. He co-leads the Coordinating center and the single cell discovery unit in the NIDDK Kidney Precision Medicine Program (KPMP.org) and the CureGN research network, and is the Director of the Applied Systems Biology at U-M. He is principle investigator in the R24 “Integrated Systems Biology Approach to Diabetic Microvascular Complications” and in the NIH Acceleration of Medicine (AMP) program in autoimmunity.

He has 20 years of experience in integration of bioinformatics, molecular and clinical approaches in more than 350 papers. He has a tract record on interdisciplinary data integration of large-scale data sets in international multi-disciplinary research networks in the U.S., Europe, China and sub-Saharan Africa and has established comprehensive frameworks for public private partnerships in kidney disease.

His studies enable precision medicine across the genotype-phenotype continuum using carefully monitored environmental exposures, genetic predispositions, epigenetic markers, transcriptional networks, proteomic profiles, metabolic fingerprints, digital histological biopsy archive and prospective clinical disease characterization. The molecular mechanism identified have result in new disease predictors and clinical trials of a novel therapeutic modality in diabetic endorgan complications diseases.

The Li laboratory studies the genetic and functional basis of complex human diseases using genomic approaches. Currently our NIH- supported projects include the analyses of spontaneous mutation patterns in the human genome (NIGMS R01), multiomic studies of a genetic rat model of addiction behavior (NIDA U01) and a rat model of metabolic health (NIDDK R01). The lab is part of the MoTrPAC Consortium (U24 NIH Common Funds) which seeks to discover the molecular transducers of the health benefit of physical exercise.

Dr. Li co-directs the Michigan Center for Single-Cell Genomic Data Analytics, which aims to build a strong computational infrastructure to support the rigorous use of single-cell genomic data. An overarching theme in the Li lab is the responsible use of complex data in transparent, reproducible, and community extendable research.

The Mills laboratory develops and implements methods to precisely identify and resolve different types of genomic variation. Our goal is to integrate this information with other forms of biologically, and medically, relevant data to improve our overall understanding of human health and disease.

Dr. Najarian’s research focuses on the design of signal/image processing and machine learning methods to create computer-assisted clinical decision support systems that improve patient care and reduce the costs of healthcare.

Dr. Najarian’s laboratory also designs sensors to collect and analyze physiological signals and images. In particular, Dr. Najarian is interested in creating decision support systems to manage traumatic brain injuries, traumatic pelvic/abdominal injuries, and hypovolemia.

Dr. Najarian’s research has been funded by agencies such as the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Biology and the Associate Editor of two other journals in the field of biomedical informatics. He is also a member of the editorial board of many other journals and serves as the guest editor of special issues for several journals.

Dr. Omenn’s research focuses on proteo-genomics of cancers and proteomics informatics. He long chaired and remains active in the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) global Human Proteome Project (www.thehpp.org). There are datasets for application of analytical tools, and there are research teams eager to engage in collaborative studies in the Chromosome-centric HPP and Biology and Disease-driven HPP initiatives.

He is a co-founder of the Consortium for Clinical Characterization of COVID-19 using Electronic Health Records (4CE) organized by the i2b2tranSMART Foundation and Harvard colleagues. He has long-standing interests in mechanisms of genetic predispositions to risk from environmental and occupational exposures (eco-genetics) and science-based risk analyses.

Before coming to UM, Dr. Omenn served as the Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. He has also served in the U.S. Government as a White House Fellow, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and as Associate Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

Dr. Omenn served as UM Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and as Chief Executive Officer of the University of Michigan Health System from 1997–2002. He has been director of the UM-wide Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics since 2005. He is a past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the Association of American Physicians. He serves on the boards of the Hastings Center for Bioethics, the Center for Public Integrity, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

The Parker laboratory uses an integrative research approach in the general fields of computational biology and functional genomics. The major goal of the lab is to generate mechanistic knowledge about how disease susceptibility is encoded in the non-coding portion of the genome, with a focus on Type 2 diabetes. They accomplish this through an interdisciplinary combination of molecular/cellular and computational approaches. Specifically, they generate multiple high-throughput data sets on the genome, epigenome, transcriptome, and proteome across species and in disease-relevant tissues/cells and use computational approaches o integrate and analyze this data. Looking forward, their belief is that these high-throughput biological profiling and analysis approaches will be closely tied to disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment—and will therefore have a tremendous influence on medicine.

Dr. Rajapakse’s laboratory focuses on the dynamics of genome organization in human cells, with emphasis on gaining a deeper understanding of how the cell cycle guides cell fate determination. They are developing genomic and imaging technologies for determining the natural dynamics of the cell cycle and building a data guided mathematical foundation. Their long-term goal is to develop strategies for direct reprogramming of normal and abnormal cells.

Dan Rhodes is a scientist and entrepreneur focused on precision medicine in oncology. He is the co-founder and CEO of Strata Oncology, a venture-backed precision oncology company committed to accelerating the impact of precision medicine for patients with cancer.

From 2012–2015, Dan was Vice President of Oncology for Thermo Fisher Scientific (Life Technologies) where he oversaw the development of cancer sequencing products and pharma companion diagnostic partnerships.

From 2006–2012, Dan was co-founder and CEO of Compendia Bioscience, a University of Michigan spinoff formed to further develop and commercialize his thesis project, Oncomine, a cancer genome data-mining platform. Over six years, Compendia grew to 20+ pharma customers and 10,000+ users, culminating in the acquisition by Life Technologies in 2012.

He has co-authored 40+ publications and is a co-inventor on 10 patents, including the discovery of gene fusions as a genetic cause of prostate cancer.

He has received the Weintraub Award, a national recognition for excellence in graduate studies, the AACR Team Science Award, was a Crain’s Detroit Mergers and Acquisitions Deal of the Year Finalist, received the Michigan Venture Capital Association’s “Up and Coming Company of the Year” Award and in 2019, Dan was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Midwest region. Dan served on the oversight committee for the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Program and on the Advisory Boards for eLab Ventures and the Monroe-Brown Biomedical Seed Fund.

Dr. Sartor’s laboratory focuses on developing bioinformatics methods and tools for analysis of genomic and epigenomic data. Research includes methods for ChIP-Seq and bisulfite sequencing data analysis, and methods for the functional interpretation of ChIP-Seq, RNA-seq and other NGS data.

The laboratory’s biological focus areas are environmental exposures and cancer, especially head and neck cancers. They are discovering new subtypes of oral cancer and gaining insights into the effects of HPV integration into the host genome in oral cancers. Their research projects range from developing statistical and bioinformatics methods to the integrative analysis and interpretation of experimental omics data to development of web-based bioinformatics tools.

Erin Shellman is a technical leader and data scientist with a track record of building high output, delivery-focused teams. She brings technical depth to all of her work, whether that is in- forming company strategy, product development, or building and maturing analytical teams and organizations. She is passionate about leading product-oriented teams that sustain rapid, incremental deliveries. A common thread throughout her career is a focus on teaching and continuous improvement. She loves data science because it demands constant learning and evolution.

Dr. Speliotes is Director of Precision Medicine for Internal Medicine where she is building biobank, analytic, and training resources to use genomic and EMR data for subtyping human diseases and matching them to specific treatments.

She is an internationally known leader in the genetics of human obesity of a non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). She founded and leads global consortia efforts that have identified and characterized hundreds of common genetic variants that associate with obesity, NAFLD, and oth-er metabolic diseases and traits using genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis.

Dr. Speliotes serves on multiple national and international grant and journal review panels. Her work has earned her The Dean’s Award for Basic Science Research and multiple invited presentations at National and International Symposia. She supports efforts of physician scientist as Associate Director of the MSTP program, and Elected Councilor/ Secretary/Treasurer and Institutional Representative for ASCI at the University of Michigan. She is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians.

Holden Thorp became Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals on 28 October 2019. He came to Science from Washington University, where he was provost from 2013 to 2019 and where he is Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor and holds appointments in both chemistry and medicine.

Thorp joined Washington University after spending three decades at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he served as the 10th chancellor from 2008 through 2013.

A North Carolina native, Thorp started at UNC as an undergraduate student and earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1986. He earned a doctorate in chemistry in 1989 at the California Institute of Technology, working with Harry B. Gray on inorganic photochemistry. He completed postdoctoral work at Yale University with Gary W. Brudvig, working on model compounds and reactions for the manganese cluster in the photosynthetic reaction center. He holds an honorary doctorate of law degree from North Carolina Wesleyan College and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of In- ventors, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In his research career, Thorp studied electron-transfer reactions of nucleic acids, developed technology for electronic DNA chips, and cofounded Viamet Pharmaceuticals, which developed VIVJOA (oteseconazole), now approved by the FDA and marketed by Mycovia Pharmaceuticals. Thorp is a venture partner at Hatteras Venture Partners, a consultant to Ancora, and is on the board of directors of PBS, the College Advising Corps, and Artizan Biosciences.

Thorp is the coauthor, with Buck Goldstein, of two books on higher education: Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the Twenty-First Century and Our Higher Calling: Rebuilding the Partnership Between America and its Colleges and Universities, both from UNC Press.

Dr. Woolliscroft’s research interests in medical education have resulted in numerous publications, invited presentations and visiting professorships across the U.S. and internationally.

Dr. Woolliscroft has served as chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Educational Affairs; the AAMC Research in Medical Education Committee; and as a founding member and President of the Clerkship Directors of Internal Medicine. He has also served on several National Board of Medical Examiners committees and the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) Board.

Dr. Woolliscroft was selected as the first Josiah Macy, Jr. Professor of Medical Education, an endowed professorship awarded through a national competition in 1996, and was named the Lyle C. Roll Profes- sor of Medicine in 2001. He received the Society of General Internal Medicine Career Achievement in Medical Education Award in 2004 and the AAMC’s Group on Educational Affairs Merrel Flair Award in 2008. In 2014 Dr. Woolliscroft received the AAMC’s most prestigious honor, the Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education which is awarded annually to an individual for extraordinary national contribu- tions to the medical education community. Dr. Woolliscroft is a Master of the American College of Physicians and in 2015 received the Laureate Award from the Michigan Chapter. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

At the University of Michigan, he has served in multiple administrative capacities including Associate Chair in the Department of Internal Medicine, Chief of Staff of the University of Michigan Hospitals, Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Medical Education, Executive Associate Dean of the University of Michigan Medical School and most recently as Dean from 2006–2015.