We are a multi-disciplinary computational team of computational biologists, bioinformaticians, computer scientists, and software engineers. Each member of the lab is trained to use these approaches to address research questions relating to disease biology and precision medicine. As part of the UAB School of Medicine and Department of Genetics, we aspire to help patients, families, and those who take care of them by developing and applying groundbreaking tools and strategies for diagnosis and prognosis. We train individuals with a biology background who would like to develop computational skills. We also train individuals with a computer science background who would like to develop biological understanding so that they can study disease and improve patient outcomes. If you want to join our team, please reach out.
Elizabeth Worthey, Ph.D.
Director
Research Interests: Developing and implementing tools and methods to extract knowledge from data that is useful for patient diagnosis and care.
Hobbies: Genealogy (just another form of phenotype and relationship analysis). Gardening (just another type of phenotype experiment). My family (the ultimate egotistical form of genotype-phenotype study).
- Director for the Center for Computational Genomics and Data Science within the department of Genetics in UAB School of Medicine
- Associate Director in Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute
- Scientist the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center
Angelina Uno-Antonison
Software Architect – Genomics
Research Interests: Full Stack Development, UX, DevOps, Automating all the things so I can spend more time programming.
Hobbies: abletop gaming, Knitting, Video games, Comics, Animation, Musical Theater, binge watching Korean dramas.
Favorite Characters: Lina Inverse, Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon)
Brandon Wilk
Data Scientist – Genomics; Ph.D. Trainee, UAB GBS-GGB theme
Research Interests: Interested in clinical and translational genomics, personalized medicine, computer science and systems design, software design and algorithm implementation.
Hobbies: Hiking, Mountain Biking, Kayaking, Brewery/Beer sampling, and Dadding like a boss
Favorite Characters: Flash
Donna Brown, M.S.
Molecular Variation Analyst in the Center for Computational Genomics and Data Science
Research Interests: Our work takes me into the most personal aspects of each individual – their genome. My aim is to bring new information to our patients, their doctors and other scientists that can make an impact on the course of disease and quality of life.
Hobbies: My grandkids, gardening, hiking, art, cooking, travel, and much much more. I’m engaged in creating and restoring respect for science, respect for nature, and respect for each other.
Favorite Characters: Julia Pennyworth
Gurpreet Kaur, Ph.D.
Research Interests: Translational bioinformatics; Multiomics; Network Biology; Tool/Pipeline development
Hobbies: Organizing myself, making a list of things I want to do/see (cities, museums, movies etc.), watching thriller and historical series/dramas, reading, doing creative things with my daughter, souvenirs collection.
Jaimie Richards, Ph.D.
Variant Analyst – Genomics-H
Research Interests: Preference and attitude research on the return of genomic results, Health Disparities, Bioethics, Health Equity, Genetic Ancestry Predictions/Modeling, Participant and Community Engagement, Community Based Participatory Research (Genomics), Gender and Women’s Studies, African American Studies, Medicinal Plant Genomics (Senna).
Hobbies: Watching cooking/baking competitions, baking/cooking, watching Korean psychodramas, Anime, playing with my dog (Koda) and guinea pigs (Jenny & Penny), spending time with friends and family, watching football, Netflix.
Favorite Characters: Killua Zoldyck (HxH), Eeyore (Winnie-the-Pooh), Baymax (Big Hero 6), Shikamaru (Naruto), Donkey (Shrek)
James Scherer
Software Developer II – Genomics
Research Interests: Software developer working on the Delphi tertiary analysis tool to investigate rare disease variants in patients. My specialty is UX/UI design work to create a more usable and intuitive tool for researchers and physicians to do timelier and more effective reviews.
Hobbies: Tinkering on side projects for related to software development and electrical hardware engineering. Cat owner.
Favorite Characters: Barbara Gordon (Hero’ine’), Darkseid (Villain)
Kate Daughtry
Clinical Research Administrator
Research Interests: Kinesiology, Physical activity and its relations to mental health disorders, genetic factors that influence body mechanics.
Hobbies: I love true crime, yoga, craft beer, Star Trek, yarn and traveling.
Favorite Characters: Data and Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek), Louise (Bobs Burgers), Rose Nylund (Golden Girls)
Manavalan Gajapathy, Ph.D.
Data Scientist – Genomics
Research Interests: Advancing patient diagnosis and care using data analysis and method implementation in Clinical and Translational Genome research.
Rabab Fatima
Software Developer II – Genomics
Research Interests: Full Stack & Mobile Software Development, UI/UX Design, Human Computer Interaction, Natural Language Processing.
Hobbies: Art – Sketching, Painting, Appreciating. Movies/TV Shows, Reading, Writing, Gaming, Working out.
Favorite Characters: Sirius Black (Harry Potter Series); Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Marvel) Arya Stark (Game of Thrones)
Samuel Bharti
Ph.D. Trainee, UAB BME-Bioinformatics
Research Interests: Developing diagnostics and treatment applications in rare disease using Systems Biology and Clinomics.
Hobbies: None, but I do like plants, travel and tech.
Shaurita Hutchins, M.S.
Ph.D. Trainee, UAB GBS-GGB
Research Interests: My interests are to develop and implement novel methods and pipelines to improve clinical diagnoses and discover relationships between genetics and/or epigenetics and disease risk/onset/progression.
Hobbies: I’m a sports fanatic, who loves writing poetry and prose, working on random coding projects, wine tastings, cooking, watching coming of age films, and studying and reading journal articles in parks.
Favorite Characters: Peter Parker (Spiderman)
Tarun Mamidi, M.S.
Ph.D. Trainee, UAB GBS-GGB
Research Interests: Develop tools/methods to prioritize causal variants in the field of rare diseases.
Hobbies: Playing Cricket, Riding motorcycle, huge DC fan.
Favorite Characters: Damian Wayne/Robin (Hero), Lex Luthor (Villain)
The CGDS team embodies a variety of backgrounds, each sharing our differing experiences, interests, skills, and our personal and professional interests to achieve our individual and team goals. Although our backgrounds may differ, we are part of a single team; our diversity is our strength.
Center Alumni
Undergraduate Students
- Blair Heater (HudsonAlpha summer intern)
Bioinformatician · The Translational Genomics Research Institute - Madison Armstrong (HudsonAlpha summer intern)
Tufts/JAX PhD Student · Genetics, Molecular & Cellular Biology Tufts/JAX - Sarah Moss (HudsonAlpha summer intern)
Researcher II · University of Alabama at Birmingham
Graduate Students
- Allison Sarkis (Co-mentor Department of Physiology, MCW)
Research Scientist, EMBL - Ameen Salahudeen (UW-Milwaukee Clinical Informatics Program MSc student)
Clinical Assistant Professor · Department of Internal Medicine, University of Illinois - Bitota Lukusa-Sawalena (UAB PREP Scholar)
UAB graduate student · Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics theme, McDonald lab - Bob Texiera (MCW Medical student)
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon · University of Utah Health - Brennan Decker (MCW Medical student)
Director Clinical Biomarkers, Senior Pathologist, and Associate Medical Director · Foundation Medicine - Brittany Goldberg (MCW Medical student)
Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist, Inova health - Bryce Shuler (MCW Medical student)
Clinical instructor · Pediatrics and Medical Genetics/Genomics, Vanderbilt University - Damien Ready (MCW-Marquette Bioinformatics MSc student)
Senior Data Scientist, Pfizer - Dong Han (MCW-Marquette Bioinformatics MSc student)
Post Doc Fellow · Maryland School of Medicine - Fahad Alqahtani (MCW-Marquette Bioinformatics MSc student)
Assistant Professor · Bioinformatics, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology - Jennifer Fisher (Co-mentor UAB)
UAB GBS, Computational Biologist · CFD Research Corporation - Kelsey Schwei (MCW-Marquette Bioinformatics MSc)
Faculty Health Informatics Graduate Program · University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine - Kris Yamada (UAB Bioinformatics MSc capstone student)
Computational Biologist · CFD Research Corporation - Lucy Zhou (HAIB Biotrain student)
Lead Statistician · UAB School of Medicine - Maribel Gamon (Marquette University student)
Product Manager · Health Care Service Corporation - Naoki Shimoyama (MCW SPUR student)
Doctoral Researcher, Marquette University - Richmond Doxey (MCW Medical student)
Internal Medicine Specialist · University of Utah Medical School - Seamus Caragher (MCW SPUR student)
MD Candidate, Harvard Medical School - Shrikar Iragavarapu (HAIB Biotrain student)
Resident Physician · University of Alabama at Birmingham - Tarang Srivastava (MCW Medical student)
Psychiatrist · Kaiser Permanente - Yusef Vazirabad (UW-Milwaukee MSc program )
Bioinformatics Analyst · Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin
Rotation Students
- Alexis Murawski (UAB Ph.D. rotation student)
UAB graduate student · Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics theme, Lefkowitz lab - Christian Fay (UAB Ph.D. rotation student)
UAB graduate student · Biomedical Sciences; Cell, Molecular, Dev Biology - Bre Minniefield (UAB Ph.D. rotation student)
Assistant Professor · Florida State University - Scott Halko (UAB Ph.D. candidate rotation student)
UAB graduate student · Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics theme, Lefkowitz lab - Yuwei Song (UAB Ph.D. candidate rotation student)
UAB graduate student · Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics theme, Chong lab
Postdoctoral Fellows
- Brad Locke (MCW Immunology Fellow)
Allergist · Prevea Healthcare - Felipe Massicano, Ph.D. (UAB Postdoctoral Fellow)
Data Scientist · Amgen - Gurpreet Kaur, Ph.D. (UAB Postdoctoral Fellow)
Researcher III · Center for Computational Genomics and Data Science - Kala Schaler (MCW Postdoctoral Fellow)
Manager, Data Analysis & Reporting Manager · Belay Diagnostics - Manavalan Gajapathy, Ph.D. (HudsonAlpha Postdoctoral Fellow)
Data Scientist – Genomics · Center for Computational Genomics and Data Science - Matt Holt (HudsonAlpha Postdoctoral Fellow)
Staff Scientist Bioinformatics · PacBio - Melissa Wilk, Ph.D. (HudsonAlpha Postdoctoral Fellow)
Clinical Laboratory Director in Molecular Diagnostics · Jackson labs - Nadiya Sosonkina, Ph.D. (UAB Postdoctoral Fellow)
Clinical Genomic Lab Director · HudsonAlpha - Nicole Chase (MCW Immunology Fellow)
Immunologist · St. Paul Allergy & Asthma - Oliver Hummel (MCW Postdoctoral Fellow)
Computational biologist · Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine - Yvonne Chiu (MCW Dermatology Fellow)
Vice Chair, Professor · Department of Dermatology, Medical College of Wisconsin
Staff
- Adrian Flannery (UAB Pathology – Informatics Analysis II)
Senior Software Engineer II · Tempus AI - Arthur Weborg (UAB CGDS – Software Architect – Genomics)
Software Architect · TalkDust Inc. - Bade Iriabho, (UAB Pathology – Systems Administrator III)
System Administrator III · UAB Pathology Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics - Deeptha Srirangam (UAB MSc Bioinformatics student/UAB Researcher II)
Broad Institute - Djamel Harbi (UAB Pathology – Bioinformatician II)
Bioinformatician II · UAB Pathology Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics - Jeremy Harris (UW-Milwaukee Clinical Informatics Program MSc student/HAIB Software Developer)
Software Engineer · Torch technologies
