People
Bogdan Pasaniuc, Ph.D.
Professor of Genetics; Director of Center for Computational Biomedicine
bogdan.pasaniuc@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Bogdan Pasaniuc, Ph.D. Website
Bogdan develops statistical and computational methods to understand the genetic basis of disease, focusing on integrative genomics, heritability and population structure. Bogdan is professor of genetics and director of the center for computational biomedicine at Penn. Prior to Penn, Bogdan was professor of computational medicine; human genetics; and pathology and laboratory medicine at UCLA. Bogdan trained at the Harvard School of Public Health and in the Program in Medical and Population Genetics at the Broad Institute in the group of Alkes Price. Prior to that, Bogdan completed a postdoc at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, CA. Bogdan obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Connecticut working in the lab of Ion Mandoiu and B.Sc. from the Faculty of Computer Science, “A.I. Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania in 2003.
Yoseph Barash, Ph.D.
Professor of Genetics
yosephb@upenn.edu
Yoseph Barash, Ph.D. Website
Yoseph Barash is a computational biologist who works on predictive models to understand RNA biogenesis, its regulation, and its role in human disease. His lab, the BioCiphers lab, develops machine learning algorithms that integrate genomic and genetic data, followed by wet lab experimental verifications. In recent years the lab has also grown to work in the space of technology development, creating new high-throughput assays.
Brielin Brown, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Informatics and Genetics
Brielin.Brown@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Brielin Brown, Ph.D. Website
Brielin C. Brown is an Assistant Professor of Informatics and Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine who is broadly interested in the development and application of statistical and computational methods in bioinformatics and genetics with a focus on complex traits. Dr. Brown is particularly interested in large-scale exploratory data analysis, causal inference, omic sdata integration, and cross-ancestry analysis.
Pablo G. Cámara, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Genetics
Pablo G. Cámara, Ph.D. Website
Pablo G. Camara, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania and a faculty member of the Institute for Biomedical Informatics and the AI2D Center for AI and Data Science for Integrated Diagnostics. His research focuses on the cellular and molecular organization of the brain and brain tumors, utilizing mathematical principles to analyze high-dimensional omics and imaging data.
Jinbo Chen, Ph.D.
Professor of Biostatistics in Biostatistics and Epidemiology
jinboche@upenn.edu
Jinbo Chen, Ph.D. Website
Dr. Jinbo Chen’s primary areas of research include the development of statistical methods for designing and analyzing two-phase epidemiologic studies, methodological and collaborative work in genetic association studies of complex diseases, and the development and evaluation of risk prediction models.
Scott M. Damrauer, MD
William Maul Measey Associate Professor of Surgery II
Scott.Damrauer@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Scott M. Damrauer, MD Website
Dr. Damrauer’s research utilizes genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic approaches to characterize the biological pathways and cellular mechanisms that are most relevant in the etiology, progression, and treatment of heart and vascular disease. He is a clinically active vascular surgeon at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA (CMCVA) who treats Veterans with vascular disease on a daily basis, and he capitalizes on this in his research program as he leverage the techniques of molecular and genetic epidemiology to understand basic pathophysiology.
Tristan J. Hayeck
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
hayeckt@chop.edu
Tristan J. Hayeck Website
Dr. Hayeck’s research focuses on statistical genetics, genetic epidemiology, and evolutionary genetics. His lab develops software tools to improve our understanding of the impact of genetic variation on disease. The goal of his research is to advance translational and precision medicine. We integrate computational biology and functional genomics in the human brain to understand the genetic mechanisms contributing to -- and novel therapeutic targets for -- neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
Michael J. Gandal, MD, Ph.D., MSc
William & Noreen Hetznecker Associate Professor in Psychiatry
Michael.Gandal@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Michael J. Gandal, MD, Ph.D., MSc Website
Michael Gandal, M.D. Ph.D., is the William & Noreen Hetznecker Associate Professor of Psychiatry and a member of the Lifespan Brain Institute at Penn Med and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He holds secondary appointments in Genetics at Penn and Pediatrics (Division of Human Genetics) at CHOP. We integrate computational biology and functional genomics in the human brain to understand the genetic mechanisms contributing to -- and novel therapeutic targets for -- neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
Ziyue Gao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Genetics
ziyuegao@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Ziyue Gao, Ph.D. Website
Ziyue Gao, PhD and her lab are focused on the genesis and accumulation of mutations in natural populations. They are particularly interested in the mechanisms and timing of mutagenesis in the germline and somatic tissues, as well as the causes and consequences of mutation rate variation. To answer these questions, her team takes a computational approach to integrate data from comparative genomics, human genetics, cancer genetics and developmental biology.
Struan F.A. Grant, Ph.D.
Professor of Pediatrics (Human Genetics)
grants@pennmedicine.upenn.edu; grants@chop.edu
Struan F.A. Grant, Ph.D. Website
I have been conducting human genomics research for over 25 years. The highlights of my career are the discovery of the polymorphic Sp1 site in the COL1A1 gene and its association with osteoporosis, the identification of variation in the TCF7L2 gene playing a key role in conferring type 2 diabetes risk and providing leadership in an international genetics effort to characterize genes influencing birth weight and common childhood obesity risk. I have also previously played a role in uncovering genes involved in other traits, including inflammatory bowel disease, autism and type 1 diabetes.
Shannon M. Gray
Genetic Counselor
shannon.gray@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Shannon Gray received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Genetics and Zoology from the Ohio State University in 2020. After graduation, she worked for two years as a clinical research assistant studying melanoma at the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. She then went on to complete her Master of Science in Genetic Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024. She currently works as a genetic counselor in the Center for Adult-Onset Hearing Loss and the Center for Computational Biomedicine at Penn Medicine.
Jin Jin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
Jin.Jin@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Jin Jin, Ph.D. Website
I am an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics. My research interests focus on developing statistical and computational methods to address cutting-edge problems in public health and medicine by integrating large-scale, multi-source datasets. Within this scope, my research involves health equity in disease risk prediction, statistical genetics, Bayesian hierarchical models for high-dimensional, complex-structured data, and statistical data integration.
Dokyoon Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Informatics in Biostatistics and Epidemiology
dokyoon.kim@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Dokyoon Kim, Ph.D. Website
Dr. Dokyoon Kim is an Associate Professor of Informatics and serves as the Director of the Center for AI-Driven Translational Informatics (CATI). He also holds the role of Associate Director of Informatics at Immune Health. His primary focus is on the integration of multi-modal data, including omics data, environmental data, imaging, and phenotype data from Electronic Health Records (EHR).
Hongzhe Li (Lee), Ph.D.
Perelman Professor in Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics
hongzhe@upenn.edu
Hongzhe Li (Lee), Ph.D. Website
Working with Penn collaborators, we are currently developing methods for analysis of high-throughout genomic data. Our application areas include genome-wide association studies of neuroblastoma, eQTL analysis of human heart failure data and metagenomic data analysis of human gut microbiome. In the area of statistical genomics, our recent research has focused on developing statistical and computational methods for analysis of genetic pathways and networks, novel methods for analysis of eQTL data and methods for analysis of microbiome and metagenomics data. These collaborations have led to publications in Science, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Developmental Cell, PNAS etc and have motivated many of our methodological research projects.
Michael G. Levin, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine)
Michael.Levin@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Michael G. Levin, MD Website
Dr. Levin studies the genetic basis of cardiovascular disease using large-scale biobanks and electronic health records. Our research investigates how genetic variation influences cardiovascular disease risk and uses these insights to identify therapeutic targets, improve genetic risk prediction, and validate findings through clinical studies.
Qin Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Genetics
qin.li1@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Qin Li, Ph.D. Website
Dr. Li's research focuses on our immune system ability to discriminate between self and non-self molecules. To achieve this goal, cells utilize various sensors to recognize patterns frequently found in pathogens. Yet how cells avoid unwanted recognition of self molecules to prevent autoimmunity is poorly understood.
Glennis Logsdon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Genetics
glogsdon@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Glennis Logsdon, Ph.D. Website
The Logsdon laboratory uses long-read sequencing, innovative computational methods, and synthetic biology approaches to investigate the sequence and structure of regions of the human genome that have remained unresolved for the past two decades. We are particularly interested in the centromeres, which comprise over half of the previously unresolved sequences and are among the most dynamic and rapidly evolving regions in the human genome.
Iain Mathieson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Genetics
mathi@upenn.edu
Iain Mathieson, Ph.D. Website
Iain work focuses on the genetic basis, distribution and evolution of complex traits in humans. He uses ancient DNA to record and understand the evolution of complex traits as humans migrated throughout the world, developed agriculture, and created and experienced new environments. In particular, he tries to integrate ancient DNA data with information from medical genetics (e.g. Genome-wide association studies), and anthropology to understand the full picture of how genetics and environment interact today, and interacted in the past, to shape human phenotypic diversity.
Ophir Shalem, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Genetics
shalemo@upenn.edu
Ophir Shalem, Ph.D. Website
Our lab is interested in functional genomics, approaches that are aimed at understanding gene function by following the effects of direct perturbations at a large scale, we are developing novel perturbation and functional genomics approaches and applying them together with additional genomics approaches to study a range of human diseases including early and late onset neurodegenerative diseases.
Avi Srivastava, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
asrivastava@wistar.org
Avi Srivastava, Ph.D. Website
Avi Srivastava, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at The Wistar Institute and the Department of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads a laboratory developing experimental and computational technologies to dissect RNA isoform regulation at single-cell resolution. His group integrates long-read sequencing, multi-omic assays, and statistical modeling to reveal how post-transcriptional mechanisms—such as alternative splicing and UTR variation—reshape cellular identity in cancer and autoimmunity.
Anurag Verma, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Translational Medicine and Human Genetics)
anurag.verma at pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Zixuan (Eleanor) Zhang, Ph.D.
CCB Postdoctoral Fellow
Zixuan.Zhang@PennMedicine.upenn.edu
Eleanor collaborates with Dr. Brielin Brown, Dr. Bogdan Pasaniuc, and Dr. Michael Gandal on her postdoc work. Her research centers on developing statistical and computational methods in human genetics, with a particular focus on integrating single-cell and functional genomics to advance understanding of the genetic basis of complex traits and diseases.