Advisory Board
Chair
Andrew I. Brooks, Ph.D.
Dr. Brooks is the Director of the Bionomics Research and Technology Center (BRTC) at the Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He is also the Associate Director of Technology Development at Rutgers University’s Cell and DNA Repository and an Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine and Genetics at UMDNJ.
Previously Dr. Brooks was the Director of the Functional Genomics Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Brooks is a molecular neuroscientist whose research interest in deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying memory and learning includes the study of neurotoxicants and their effects on development and cognitive decline associated with disease onset and progression. In the past Dr. Brooks has served as the Director of the Academic Medicine Development Company (AMDeC) Microarray Resource Center (MRC) and as Chair of the Microarray Research Group (MARG) in the Association of Biomedical Resource Facilities (ABRF).
Advisors
Christopher S. Barker, Ph.D.
Dr. Barker is the Director of the Genomics Core Laboratory at the J. David Gladstone Institutes and Director of the Core Genomics Laboratory at San Francisco General Hospital General Clinical Research Center. These facilities provide support for basic and translational genomics studies to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to this he was Vice President for Molecular Biology at Genomic Solutions Inc., a leading manufacturer of microarray equipment. Dr. Barker is a molecular biologist who's research focuses on developing and implementing new technologies to make them readily accessible to basic and clinical researchers.
Bernard Brownstein, Ph.D.
Bernard (Buddy) Brownstein is a faculty member at the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine, where he is utilizing state-of-the-art tools in functional genomics to study inflammation and host response to trauma and burn injury. In addition, he is studying the response of transcription factors to radiation exposure, and commonalities to inflammation. Previously, Buddy was the Director of the Washington University Microarray Facility. Prior to that he was the Assistant Director of the Center for Genetics in Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, where he made the first yeast artificial chromosome library of human DNA, the first library to be used in constructing a physical map of the human genome. While serving as faculty in the department of Medicine at the University of Chicago’s Section of Hematology and Oncology, Buddy studied the effect of alpha and beta interferons on gene expression in human leukemic cells. He was the first to completely clone the human Hepatitis A virus, at the Department of Theoretical Biology and Biophysics at the University of Chicago and worked on genome structure and replication of RNA bacterial viruses. Buddy received his Ph.D. with an emphasis in molecular genetics from the University of California.
Ronald 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 world-renowned researcher in the area of genomics and high throughput biochemical techniques. He pioneered many of the early techniques developed using recombinant DNA and helped conceive of novel methods for genetic linkage analysis. He has received multiple awards for his contributions to the field and sits on the NIH Genome Research Committee. 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.
Shawn Levy, Ph.D.
Dr. Levy is the Director of the Vanderbilt Microarray Shared Resource and holds an assistant professorship in Biomedical Informatics and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. His research interests include developing new technologies and methods used in high-density gene expression profiling, structural and functional genomics, and the development of bioinformatic tools for the integration of molecular profiles of protein and gene expression with genotype information. Other research interests include the study of the nuclear enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) and its involvement in disease states such as ischemia, tumor progression and inflammatory injury. Dr. Levy is a member of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, the Vanderbilt Digestive Disease Center and the Vanderbilt Institute for Chemical Biology. Dr. Levy is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for Biomolecular Resource Facilities and American Association for Cancer Research.
Jay P. Tiesman, Ph.D.
Dr. Tiesman is a Principal Scientist in the Corporate Biotechnology Division of The Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the Genomics Group Leader and a Corporate Technology Entrepreneur, charged with identifying novel biotechnology innovations worldwide to address key needs for P&G. He is playing a major role in the integration of genomic and genetic technologies throughout the Company. Since joining P&G in 1993, he has been actively involved in advancing functional genomics research, developing several novel, proprietary genomic technologies for target discovery and high-throughput screening. He has been particularly interested in the use of genomics to gain insight into epithelial cell biology. Before joining P&G, he completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Charlie Hart at ZymoGenetics, Inc., where he pursued research in the field of growth factor signal transduction associated with wound healing and tissue remodeling. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. He worked in the Laboratory of Dr. Angie Rizzino at the Eppley Cancer Institute, delineating the roles and impact of growth factors on embryonic development. Dr. Tiesman obtained Bachelor degrees in Philosophy and Biology at Creighton University in Omaha.