Scientific Advisory Board

George M. Church, Ph.D.

George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Computational Genetics. His current research focuses on integrating biosystems-modeling with Personal Genomics & synthetic biology. Innovations in homologous recombination and array-based DNA reading & writing lead to current research in Human Genomics (Complete Genomics, PGP, 23andme, Knome) & synthetic biology (SynBERC, Joule Biotech, LS9) and new ethics and safety strategies.

George’s 1984 Harvard PhD included the first direct genomic sequencing method, molecular multiplexing tags, which lead to automation & software used at Genome Therapeutics Corp. for the first commercial genome sequence. This multiplex solid-phase sequencing evolved into polonies (1999) and lead to the ABI-SOLiD sequencing system.

Adam E. Cohen, Ph.D.

Adam E. Cohen’s research focuses on developing new physical tools to study biological molecules and cells. He invented the Anti-Brownian Electrokinetic trap (ABEL trap), a machine capable of trapping and manipulating individual biomolecules in solution. The ABEL trap uses real-time feedback to suppress the Brownian motion of a single molecule, and has allowed scientists to probe the dynamics of single molecules with more precision than was previously possible. Current research in the Cohen Lab includes single-molecule spectroscopy of microbial rhodopsins, the motion of bacteria in mucus, and new magneto-optical and chiroptical effects in organic molecules.

Adam E. Cohen received an A.B. (summa cum laude) in chemistry and physics from Harvard in 2001, and PhDs in theoretical physics (Cambridge, 2003), and experimental physical chemistry (Stanford, 2006). He joined the faculty of the Chemistry and Physics Departments at Harvard in 2007

David R. S. Cumming, Ph.D.

David is Professor of Microsystem Technology and Director of the Electronics Design Centre for Heterogeneous Systems at Glasgow University.  A major activity in his group is the design and implementation of micro and nanosensors on integrated circuits. He worked as a VLSI design engineer with STMicroelectronics before taking up a post-doctoral research position at Glasgow University. He then became an 1851 Research Fellow before becoming a lecturer at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. In 1999 he rejoined Glasgow University as a lecturer and was awarded an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship in 2001. He has worked variously on mesoscopic device physics, RF characterisation of novel devices, fabrication of diffractive optics for optical and sub-millimeter wave applications, diagnostic systems, and microelectronics design.

David R. S. Cumming has B.Eng. (Glasgow) and Ph.D. (Cambridge) degrees. He is Associate Editor for IEEE Trans. Biomedical Circuits and Systems.    

Ronald W. Davis, Ph.D.

Dr. Davis is the Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center and Professor of Biochemistry and Genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-founder of ParAllele. He is a leader in the development of biotechnology, especially the development and application of recombinant DNA and genomic methodologies to biological systems. He is a pioneer in the area of genomics and high throughput biochemical techniques. Pioneering many of the early techniques developed using recombinant DNA and genetic linkage analysis. In addition to his work in academia, Professor Davis has been involved in the spin-off of multiple start-up companies in the area of genomics from his laboratory at Stanford.

Davis earned his BS degree in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and botany from Eastern Illinois University and his PhD in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. Davis is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has served on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Genome Research Review Committee, and as chairman of the World Health Organization Strategic Research Steering Committee.

Michael W. Deem, Ph.D.

Michael is the John W. Cox Professor of Bioengineering and professor of Physics & Astronomy at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Michael W. Deem works in the area of evolution, immunology, and materials. He has brought tools from statistical physics to bear on problems in these areas. Of particular focus to him are those biological issues involving randomness, diversity, and correlations. 

Michael W. Deem received his B.S. (with Honor) from the California Institute of Technology in 1991 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Physics at Harvard University 1995-1996. Deem is the recipient of a number of awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and Allan P. Colburn Award. He is an editorial board member of the journal "Protein Engineering, Design and Selection" and "PLoS Computational Biology." Deem is a Member of the Board of Governors for the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter and is a Rice Senator. Deem is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and of the American Physical Society.

Abbas El Gamal, Ph.D.

Abbas El Gamal is professor of the department of electrical engineering at Stanford University, and Director, Information Systems Laboratory at Stanford University. Professor El Gamal’s research has spanned several areas including digital imaging, network information theory, and integrated circuit design.  He has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford since 1981. In 1990 he cofounded Silicon Architects, which is currently part of Synopsys. He was on leave from Stanford from 1984 to 1988 first as Director of LSI Logic Research Lab, then as cofounder and Chief Scientist of Actel corporation. From 1978 to 1980 he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at SC.

Abbas El Gamal received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University in 1972, the M.S. in Statistics and the PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in 1977 and 1978, respectively. He has authored or coauthored 150 papers and 25 patents in these areas. He has served on the board of directors and advisory boards of several IC and EDA companies. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Jim Lupski, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Lupski assumed the role of Vice Chairman at BCM in 2006 with primary responsibilities for the further development and further clinical implementation of molecular diagnostics with a particular focus on high resolution analysis of the human genome to link structural variants of the genome with clinical phenotypes. His laboratory determines molecular mechanisms for disease using molecular biological, genomic, and human genetic approaches to investigate clinical phenotypes.

Jim Lupski received his initial scientific training at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as an Undergraduate Research Participant (URP) and at New York University completing the M.D./Ph.D. program in 1985. In 1986 he moved to Houston, Texas for clinical training in pediatrics (1986-1989) and medical genetics (1989-1992) and then established his own laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) where he remains, and as of 1995, as the Cullen Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics and a Professor of Pediatrics. Dr Lupski is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies Science and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has coauthored over 450 scientific publications, is an inventor on more than 20 patents and has delivered over 325 invited lectures in 26 countries.

Amy L. McGuire, J.D., Ph.D.

Amy L. McGuire, J.D., Ph.D. is an assistant professor of medicine and medical ethics with the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine.  Dr. McGuire's research focuses on legal and ethical issues in genetics and genomics, with a particular interest in genetic research and personalized genomic medicine. She is currently studying research participant attitudes toward broad data sharing in genome-wide association studies and consumer expectations regarding the clinical integration of direct-to-consumer personal genome testing services. Her research is funded by the NHGRI-ELSI program and the Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics.

Amy received her B.A. in psychology, summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Houston, and her Ph.D. in medical humanities from the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. McGuire is a member of the Personalized Health Care Working Group (PHC) for the American Health Information Community (AHIC), the Working Group on Participant and Data Protection (PDP) for the Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN), and is on the advisory board for the X Prize in Genomics.

Antoine van Oijen, Ph.D.

Antoine is an assistant professor at the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research interests are centered on developing and using single-molecule techniques to study the activity of DNA-processing enzymes.

Antoine van Oijen received an MSc and PhD in physics from Leiden University, the Netherlands. He held a postdoctoral position at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He has been a recipient of a Searle Scholarship and a Career Award from the National Science Foundation.