Paul Boutros, PhD, MBA
SAB Chair
Dr. Boutros began his independent research career at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research as principal investigator in informatics and biocomputing, and assistant professor in the departments of pharmacology and toxicology and medical biophysics at the University of Toronto. In 2018, Paul relocated to the University of California, Los Angeles, taking on leadership roles at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Institute for Precision Health. As a professor in the departments of human genetics and urology, Dr. Boutros’s research focuses on personalizing therapy for cancer by developing novel statistical methodologies. He leads the ICGC-TCGA DREAM Somatic Mutation Calling Challenge that is setting global standards for analyzing cancer genomic data, and drives programs in cancer genomics, data science and biomarker translation. He was received numerous awards, including the Dorval Prize by the Canadian Cancer Society, recognizing the best early career investigator nationally. He has a degree in chemistry from the University of Waterloo; a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
Ann Barker, PhD
SAB Member
As co-director of CAS-Biomedicine, Dr. Ann Barker designs and implements new research knowledge networks, projects, and models to address major problems in biomedical research and biomedicine. She currently focuses on complex systems science as applied to the discovery and systems development of biomarkers, next-generation clinical trials, and the applications of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics for biomarker discovery. Prior to ASU, she served as the deputy director and deputy director for strategic scientific initiatives for the National Cancer Institute (NCI)/National Institutes of Health (NIH). Previously, she was a senior executive at Battelle Memorial Institute for 18 years, and also was the co-founder and CEO of a public biotechnology company focused on novel strategies to control reactive oxygen damage in inflammatory diseases and cancer. She serves on a number of boards of for-profit and non-profit organizations. She received her MA and PhD at Ohio State University, where she trained in immunology and microbiology.
Lawrence Hunter, PhD
SAB Member
Dr. Lawrence Hunter is the director of the University of Colorado’s Computational Bioscience Program and a professor of pharmacology (School of Medicine) and computer science (Boulder). He received a PhD in computer science from Yale University in 1989. He then joined the National Institutes of Health as a staff scientist, first at the National Library of Medicine and then at the National Cancer Institute, before moving to Colorado in 2000. Dr. Hunter is widely recognized as one of the founders of bioinformatics. He served as the first president of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), and created several of the most important conferences in the field, including ISMB, PSB and VizBi. Dr. Hunter’s research interests span a wide range of areas from cognitive science to rational drug design. He has published more than 100 scientific papers, holds two patents, and has been elected a fellow of both the ISCB and the American College of Medical Informatics. His primary focus recently has been the integration of natural language processing, knowledge representation, machine learning, and advanced visualization techniques to address challenges in interpreting data generated by high-throughput molecular biology.
Jennifer Wagner, JD, PhD
SAB Member
Dr. Jennifer K. Wagner is associate director of bioethics research and assistant professor in the Center for Translational Bioethics & Health Care Policy at Geisinger and is a licensed practicing attorney in Pennsylvania. She earned her JD at the University of North Carolina in 2007 and PhD in anthropology at Pennsylvania State University in 2010 before completing post-doctoral research appointments at Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Integration of Genetic Healthcare Technologies. Prior to joining Geisinger, Dr. Wagner served in a U.S. Senator’s office in Washington, DC, as a 2014-2015 AAAS Congressional Fellow. She is former chair of the ASHG Social Issues Committee, former co-chair of the AAPA Ethics Committee, and a current member of the AAPA Science Policy Committee and Pennsylvania Bar Association's Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Committee. Dr. Wagner’s research has been funded by NHGRI, NCI, NIDCR, and NIH OD. She is on Twitter as @DNAlawyer.
Wendy Chung, MD, PhD
SAB Member
Dr. Wendy Chung is a clinical and molecular geneticist and the Kennedy Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Director of Clinical Genetics. She received her BA in biochemistry and economics from Cornell University, her MD from Cornell University Medical College, and her PhD from The Rockefeller University in genetics. Dr. Chung directs NIH-funded research programs in human genetics of pulmonary hypertension, autism, birth defects including congenital diaphragmatic hernia and congenital heart disease. She is a national leader in the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics. She leads the Precision Medicine Resource in the Irving Institute At Columbia University. She has authored over 500 peer reviewed papers and 75 reviews and chapters in medical texts. She was the recipient of the Medical Achievement Award from Bonei Olam, the NY Academy of Medicine Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Biomedical Science, the Rare Impact Award from the National Organization of Rare Disorders, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Chung enjoys the challenges of genetics as a rapidly changing field of medicine and strives to facilitate the integration of genetic medicine into all areas of health care in a medically, scientifically, and ethically sound, accessible, and cost-effective manner.
Warren A. Kibbe, PhD
SAB Member
Dr. Warren A. Kibbe is Vice Chair and Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Duke University. His research interests include data representation for clinical trials, especially improving the computability and interpretability of biomarker and eligibility criteria and data interoperability between medical records and decision support algorithms. Dr. Kibbe has been a proponent for open science and open data in biomedical research and helped define the data sharing policy for the NCI Cancer Moonshot program. Prior to joining Duke, he served as an acting deputy director of the NCI and was the director of the NCI’s Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information. He was one of the architects of the NCI Genomic Data Commons initiative. Dr. Kibbe is a co-founder of the Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (Ci4CC.org) society. Dr. Kibbe is an MPI on the NIH/NIMHD-funded RADx-Underserved Populations Coordination and Data Collection Center and an MPI in the NIH/NHGRI-funded Duke Center for Combinatorial Gene Regulation.
Vilas Menon, PhD
SAB Member
Dr. Vilas Menon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He received his PhD in applied mathematics from Northwestern University, where he conducted experimental and computational research into the mechanisms by which neurons integrate synaptic information. Following his interest in neuroinformatics and computational biology, he spent 5 years at the Allen Institute for Brain Science conducting large-scale gene expression analysis, specializing in methods for single-cell RNA-sequencing data interpretation, an emerging field at the time. At Columbia, his group focuses on cell type dysregulation in neurodegenerative disease, with a special emphasis on signatures of resistance to neuropathology. Their work combines single-cell and bulk multiomics approaches with new computational methods. His work is funded through the National Institute on Aging, as well as a series of private institutions.
Former SAB Members
2019-2020
Dr. Joon-Ho Yu, University of Washington School of Medicine
Dr. Amanda Tan, University of Washington
Dr. Laura Germine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Jeffrey Kaye, Layton Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, and Oregon Center for Aging and Technology