Our People
Senior Leadership
Faculty and Senior Scientists
Scientific Director and Core Faculty
Senior Scientists
Associate Members
Scientific Advisory Board
Composed of leading international genomic scientists, the 12-member NYGC Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) offers guidance and valuable input on research strategy from diverse perspectives to the NYGC’s Evnin Family Scientific Director and CEO, Tom Maniatis, PhD.
The wide-ranging expertise of the advisory board includes: quantitative human genetics, neurogenetics, functional genomics, genomic technology development, computational biology, machine learning, population genomics, and cancer genomics.
NYGC Scientific Advisory Board
California Institute of Technology
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
MD Anderson Cancer Center
EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, England
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Vanderbilt University
University of California San Diego
Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm, Sweden
University of Chicago
Stanford University
University of Washington;Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of California, San Francisco
Affiliate Members
The NYGC provides Affiliate Memberships to external academic researchers who have a significant interest in and commitment to the scientific life and work of the NYGC, and will contribute to and benefit from the NYGC’s mission.
Researchers who hold primary academic and/or clinical appointments at Institutional Founding Member and Institutional Associate Member organizations are eligible to be considered for an appointment as Affiliate Members.
The NYGC currently has 82 Affiliate Members, hailing from 15 academic institutions and medical centers. Please email Affiliate affiliate@nygenome.org if you are interested in applying to the program.
NYGC Affiliate Members
Scientific Working Groups
The NYGC has established scientific working groups with the objective of bringing together NYGC researchers and the scientific community to advance disease-based research in areas where our strengths and experience can make a significant difference.
Genome Center Cancer Group
The Genome Center Cancer Group (GCCG), led by Harold Varmus, MD, NYGC and Weill Cornell Medicine, and Charles Sawyers, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is composed of clinicians and cancer researchers from NYGC’s member institutions, including 8 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. The GCCG launched Polyethnic-1000, a project to study cancer in New York’s ethnically diverse, underserved patient populations. The group is also spearheading the multi-institutional Very Rare Cancer Consortium, a research cohort focused on understanding the genetic causes for rare, understudied cancers.
Enabling Innovation Working Group
The Enabling Innovation Working Group, led by NYGC Senior Scientific Director of Cancer Genomics Samuel Aparicio, PhD, brings together researchers from our Institutional Founding Members, NYGC faculty and senior faculty, NYGC technology development and computational scientists, and affiliate members to build collaborative initiatives in gene editing and functional genomics, single cell and spatial genomics, and innovative computational methods necessary to understand the underlying biology and mechanisms of disease to advance precision medicine.
Neurodegenerative Disease Working Group
The NYGC is leveraging the success of the Center for Genomics of Neurodegenerative Disease (CGND) to extend our work across a range of neurodegenerative diseases that have pathways in common with ALS, including dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. The Neurodegenerative Disease Working Group is co-led by Thomas Lehner, PhD, MPH, NYGC and Hemali Phatnani, PhD, NYGC and Columbia University, with the objective of bringing together researchers from our Institutional Founding Members, NYGC faculty and senior faculty, NYGC technology development and computational scientists, and affiliate members to build partnerships and programs to better understand the biological underpinnings and molecular mechanisms driving neurodegenerative disease.
Neuropsychiatric Disease Working Group
The Neuropsychiatric Disease Working Group, led by Thomas Lehner, PhD, MPH, NYGC brings together researchers from our Institutional Founding Members, NYGC faculty, senior faculty, NYGC technology development and computational scientists, and affiliate members to discuss the underlying disease mechanisms in neuropsychiatric disease. The group is building off the large dataset produced by NYGC as part of the Centers for Common Disease Genomics, funded by the NHGRI. As part of this effort, NYGC generated whole genome sequencing data on over 37,000 individuals from families with at least one member affected by autism spectrum disorder. Currently the group is working on a number of initiatives studying the biological underpinnings of neuropsychiatric disorders including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychosis-related disorders.
Population Genomics and Statistical Genetics Working Group
The Population Genomics and Statistical Genetics Working Group is led by David Knowles, PhD, NYGC and Adam Siepel, PhD, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This group brings together scientists to discuss the development and investigation into the human population genomic data that underpins and informs all disease-focused research. The group’s interest spans a number of research areas, including long read sequencing, social health science, ancestry-based genomics, as well as the genome-wide computational approaches that allow us to interpret human genome and transcriptome data.