Efforts to ensure that pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical clinical laboratory genomic practices and services are inclusive and affirmative towards the underrepresented GETV communities have been ongoing. However, establishment and implementation of best practice guidelines to address such goals are still needed. Some of these efforts include inclusion of sex at birth, gender identity, pronouns, and chosen names in electronic medical records and laboratory information systems, and affirmative terms in lab documents and clinical reports.

Tejus A. Bale is a board-certified anatomic pathologist, neuropathologist, and molecular genetic pathologist.
A native New Yorker, she studied Biochemistry and Dance as an undergraduate at State University of New York, Stony Brook before going on to earn her MD and PhD at the School of Medicine. This sparked her continued fascination with the brain and led her to train as a resident in Anatomic Pathology and fellow Neuropathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, followed by second fellowship in Molecular Genetic Pathology at Harvard Medical School.
Since 2017, she is an Assistant Attending on both the Neuropathology and Diagnostic Molecular Pathology services at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, where she has been working to lead, develop, and improve integrative diagnostic activities as a liaison between two pathology subspecialties. She has helped lead the clinical validation efforts for several novel assays; her research involves demonstrating the feasibility and clinical utility of widespread clinical implementation of these tests, which dovetails with additional interests in examining the use of molecular and cytogenetic data to improve diagnostic and prognostic accuracy in adult and pediatric brain tumors.
She is particularly passionate about the future of Pathology, and serves on several departmental, hospital and national committees. As the Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Advocacy (IDEA) in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at MSK, she is working to design and implement strategies to increase diversity, ensure equity, and encourage dialogue to understand and combat any and all forms of discrimination and injustice.

Michael Berger, PhD, holds the Elizabeth and Felix Rohatyn Chair and is Co-Director of the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His laboratory has developed experimental and computational methods to characterize the genetic makeup of individual cancers, including MSK-IMPACT, a comprehensive FDA-authorized tumor sequencing panel that been used to profile more than 80,000 tumors from patients treated at MSK. The resulting data have enabled the characterization of somatic and germline biomarkers across all cancer types and the identification of mutations associated with clonal hematopoiesis. Dr. Berger also led the development of a clinically validated plasma cell-free DNA assay, MSK-ACCESS, which his laboratory is using to explore tumor evolution, acquired drug resistance, and occult metastatic disease. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University.

Curriculum Vitae Summary

Prof. Francesco Curcio, MD. Full Professor of Clinical Pathology
Dipartimento di Medicina. Università di Udine – School of Medicine

APPOINTMENTS

Past:
– Guest Researcher, Gene Expression Program, EMBL, Heidelberg.
– Visiting Scientist, Laboratory of Genetics, NCI, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
– Director, Unit of Cellular and Molecular Diagnosis and Therapy, University of Udine Medical Center, Udine, Italy.
– Dean for Medical Education, University of Udine Medical Center, Udine, Italy.

Current:
– Full Professor of Clinical Pathology, University of Udine Medical School, Udine, Italy;
– Chairman, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Udine Medical Center, Udine, Italy;

Dr. Gajewski directs the Melanoma Oncology Clinic and leads the Immunology and Cancer Program of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his BS, PhD in Immunology, and MD degrees from the University of Chicago, and remained for a residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology. His PhD mentor was T cell immunologist Dr. Frank Fitch, and he went on to do a post-doctoral fellowship at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels with Dr. Thierry Boon for studies in anti-tumor immunity. After returning to Chicago, Dr. Gajewski joined the faculty in 1997.

The focus of Dr. Gajewski’s work has been on understanding fundamental aspects of anti-tumor immunity and bringing these concepts forward from the laboratory into clinical trial testing in patients. While working on melanoma vaccine strategies, his laboratory uncovered a role for downstream resistance pathways allowing tumor evasion from the immune response. Gene expression profiling and IHC approaches have identified the T cell-inflamed and non-T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment phenotypes. The T cell-inflamed tumors contain tumor antigen-specific T cells but also negative regulatory pathways that have been moved forward as drug targets, including blockade of PD-1/PD-L1 interactions and of IDO. Strategies to promote T cell priming and infiltration into non-T cell-inflamed tumors have led to STING pathway agonist development, currently in clinical testing. Genomic characterization of non-T cell-inflamed tumors has revealed oncogene pathways that mediate T cell exclusion, the first of which was the Wnt/-catenin pathway. Recent work has also identified germline polymorphisms and evidence for commensal microbiota that also regulate anti-tumor immunity, and microbiota interventions such as FMT have also moved into the clinic.

Dr. Gajewski has published more than 240 manuscripts and 20 book chapters in these areas, and has presented data at more than 400 scientific conferences. He is past president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, is founding editor of the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer, is past chair of the Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy grant review study section at NIH, has served on the program committees for ASCO and AACR, and is a grant reviewer for the Melanoma Research Alliance and Cancer Research Institute. In 2016 he became the first recipient of the American Cancer Society-Jules L. Plangere Jr. Family Foundation Professorship in Cancer Immunotherapy, and was designated a Distinguished Professor at the University of Chicago. Among other recognitions, he was named the AbbVie Foundation Professor for Cancer Immunotherapy, received the William B. Coley Award for contributions to the field of cancer immunology, the ESMO award in Immuno-oncology, and was inducted into the American Association of Physicians. He has had continuous NIH funding for 20 years, and is scientific co-founder of Jounce Therapeutics and Pyxis Oncology.

Alex Greninger is the Larry Corey Endowed Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington Medical Center, assistant director of the clinical virology labs, and director of the clinical trials and Retrovirology lab. His clinical labs support a wide variety of diagnostic, clinical research, and clinical trials across a wide of array of virology. His main research interest involve genomically informed approaches to the study of viral replication, mechanisms of antiviral resistance, and viral evolution.

Dr. Malachi Griffith is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School. He has more than 15 years of experience in the fields of genomics, bioinformatics, data mining, and cancer research. His research is focused on improving our understanding of cancer biology and the development of personalized medicine strategies for cancer using genomics and informatics technologies. He develops bioinformatics methods for the analysis of high throughput sequence data and identification of biomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic and drug response prediction. His lab has led the analysis of several large-scale genomics projects to help discover genomic signatures relevant to cancer initiation, progression and treatment response. Dr. Griffith has received over 20 competitive research awards and honors and was named an ‘up and coming’ investigator in Genome Technology Magazine and listed in Wired Magazine’s second annual ‘smart list’ as an emerging talent. Dr. Griffith has 104 publications with major areas of focus in immunogenomics, cancer genomics, precision medicine, biomarker discovery, sequence analysis and alternative splicing. His lab has made substantial contributions to open source and open access resources for cancer research and personalized medicine including those for mining drug-gene interactions, the clinical interpretation of variants in cancer, and neoantigen characterization.

Patricia Groenen is associated professor “Oncology diagnostics in a learning network” and clinical scientist in molecular pathology (CSMP) at the Department of Pathology at the Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She started at the department of Pathology in 1999 and is responsible for the molecular pathology diagnostics since then. As CSMP, she supervises molecular tests (mutations, copy number alterations, translocations, gene rearrangements) in diagnostic pathology specimen. Her translational research is primarily aimed at the innovation, standardization and clinical evaluation of novel technologies and applications for detection of genetic hallmarks of cancer. Her main focus is on immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor rearrangement detection. Patricia is founder, coordinator and faculty of the international EuroClonality workshop: “Clonality assessment in Pathology”, given annually in Nijmegen for pathologist and clinical scientist in molecular pathology since 2006. Currently, she is the treasurer of the EuroClonality Foundation and member of the steering committee of the EuroClonality-NGS Working group. Within this Working Group she is the work-package leader: Next-Generation Sequencing based detection of clonality of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes; protocols including bioinformatics and recommendations for interpretation. Since September 2022 she is member of the Executive Council of the European Association for Hematopathology.

Henk-Jan Guchelaar studied Pharmacy at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG) and specialized as a hospital pharmacist and clinical pharmacologist. Since 2003, he is employed as a clinical pharmacist and clinical pharmacologist and professor of clinical pharmacy and chair of the department of Clinical Pharmacy & Toxicology at Leiden University Medical Center.

Since October 2008, he is also appointed professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the Faculty of Science, Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research, University Leiden and chair of the Leiden University focus area ‘Translational Drug Discovery and Development’.

Pharmaceutical patientcare in oncology is his main area of clinical interest. He is program leader of the research program ‘Personalised Therapeutics’ investigating interindividual variability of drug response with an emphasis on pharmacogenomics. He is (co-)author of more than 600 (Web of Science indexed) articles (Pubmed: 440; Web of Science: 630) in international peer reviewed scientific journals. Guchelaar is coordinator of the EU funded Horizon 2020 project Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics (www.upgx.eu) aimed at implementing pre-emptive pharmacogenomic testing in the EU.

From 2010-2016 he was a member of the national Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects, from 2003-2017, he was vice-chair of the Dutch Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy, and since 2016 he is member of the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board. Since 2017, he is member of Council for Medical Sciences of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science and since 2020 member of the Academia Europea. Henk-Jan is founder of the new Master of Pharmacy, Leiden University Medical Center, University of Leiden.

Seamus Kearney graduated from the Queens University of Belfast with an MSc in Engineering and immediately began his career in the medical devices industry, where he has spent the last 22 years in a variety of roles from development lead, project management, QA/RA and clinical operations. Seamus has worked with many of the global leaders in the in vitro diagnostics industry, including J&J, Roche
Diagnostics and QIAGEN and founded ARC Regulatory in 2010 with the aim of supporting companies in the IVD sector through myriad global regulations for device development and clinical validation. Over the past 7 years, ARC has focused on the precision medicine sector, supporting pharma and their Dx partners in global compliance from vendor selection, due diligence, Dx regulations, GCP, study management and monitoring.

Karoline Kuchenbaecker is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at University College London where she leads the “Diversity in Genetics” group. Her research focusses on the genetic and environmental risk factors for diseases by leveraging the unique characteristics of diverse populations. She has developed methodological standards for diverse samples as well as innovative methods to empower locus discovery and to assess transferability of genetic risk factors. She is also the Scientific Lead for Diverse Data at Genomics England which aims to reduce health inequalities and improve patient outcomes within genomic medicine.

Neal Lindeman, M.D., is the newly appointed David P. Hajjar Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. He is the Vice Chair for Laboratory Medicine and Genomic Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Medical Director for Clinical Laboratories at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Campus. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Williams College, and Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Rochester, followed by Residency training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of California (San Francisco), and Fellowship training in Molecular Genetic Pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He spent 22 years on the clinical faculty at Harvard/Brigham and Women’s, rising to Vice Chair for Molecular Pathology, before joining the faculty at Weill Cornell/NewYork-Presbyterian in February, 2023.

He has published over 200 original research articles, editorials, book chapters, and reviews, and has led the development and deployment of over a dozen innovative new clinical laboratory tests, including the world’s first clinical lab tests for EGFR mutations in lung cancer and MYD88 mutations in Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia. His areas of expertise include the detection and identification of acquired genetic mutations in cancer cells as determinants of cancer biology, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, most notably in lung cancer. He has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions and practice of Pathology, including the Team Science Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the Distinguished Patient Care Award from the College of American Pathologists, and the Gerald Evans Award from the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists.

Alberto Mantovani, MD, is Emeritus Professor at Humanitas University and Scientific Director of the Istituto Clinico Humanitas. He trained and worked at the Chester Beatty Research Institute, London, UK, and at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. He served as Head of Department of Immunology and Cell Biology, Istituto Mario Negri, Milan, Italy. He has contributed to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Immunology formulating new paradigms and identifying new molecules and functions. He is one of the most quoted immunologists. For his research activity he has received several national and international awards.

Dr. Nickolas Papadopoulos is the co‐discoverer of the genetic basis of the predisposition to hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC). He was part of the interdisciplinary team that was first to sequence all of the protein coding genes of four common human tumor types. Later identified novel mutations in chromatin remodeling genes in human cancers. Currently, he is focused in the development of clinical applications in early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of cancer. He has developed sensitive methods for the detection of tumor DNA in liquid biopsy, including CancerSEEK, a blood test for the early detection of multiple cancers. He has co-founded companies that develop diagnostics for cancer.

Frédérique PENAULT-LLORCA, MD, PhD, graduated as a medical specialist in pathology in 1993 and in oncology in 1995. Also, in 1995, she received a PhD from the Université d’Aix-Marseille II in cellular biology and microbiology, on the topic of HER2. Frédérique PENAULT-LLORCA is currently professor of pathology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, CEO of the Comprehensive Regional Cancer Institute Centre Jean PERRIN, Clermont-Ferrand, France, deputy director of the research team INSERM 1240 IMoST, and head of the Molecular Biology Plateform at Centre Jean Perrin. She serves as vice-president of the UNICANCER group and chairs of the Immuno-Oncology group at UNICANCER R&D. She is a member of several pathology and oncology societies, with her main areas of expertise being female cancers. She co-chairs the French breast cancer guidelines of Nice-St Paul. Frédérique PENAULT-LLORCA has conducted various biomarkers-based research studies in breast, lung, digestive tract, prostate and thyroid cancer in relation to response to targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Frédérique PENAULT-LLORCA has participated to more than 469 peer-reviewed publications and several books on female cancers and pathologic testing methods and issues.

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed is David Weatherall Chair of Medicine at the University of Liverpool, and a Consultant Physician at the Liverpool University Hospital Foundation NHS Trust. He is Director of the Centre for Drug Safety Sciences, Director of the Wolfson Centre for Personalised Medicine and Director of HDR North.

He is an inaugural National Institute for Health and Care Research Senior Investigator, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK, and Chair of the Commission on Human Medicines. He is also a non-executive director of NHS England, and a medical trustee for the British Heart Foundation. He is the immediate Past-President of the British Pharmacological Society. He was awarded a Knights Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2015.

Luigina Romani is Professor of General Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Perugia, Italy. Her research is focused on host- and microbial-dependent mechanisms of antifungal immunity. She introduced several novel scientific and translatable concepts which have become popular in the field of medical microbiology. Examples are the concept of protective tolerance to microbes, the basis of antimicrobial immunotherapy, the pathogenic role of inflammation in infections, the discovery of tryptophan metabolites as potential mediators of the host/fungi/bacteria crosstalk. More recently, human metagenomics and metabolomics signatures predictive of infectious diseases are also of interest.

Albrecht Stenzinger is Professor of Molecular Tumor Pathology, Deptuy Director of the Institute of Pathology (IPH), as well as the Head of the IPH Center for Molecular Pathology (CMP) and Section Head for Molecular Diagnostics and Biomarker Development at the Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany. He is holding an MD degree from the University of Giessen (Germany), completed his residency and fellowship training in pathology at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin and the University Hospital Heidelberg (Germany) and is a board-certified surgical pathologist, a molecular pathologist, and senior attending. Albrecht received postdoctoral training at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, USA. He has broad expertise in molecular pathology and works in the field of translational research and genetics of solid tumors including lung cancer.

Dr Malur Sudhanva has been a Consultant Medical Virologist since April 2004, at South London Specialist Virology Centre, Synnovis, Infection Sciences Department, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London & Senior Clinical Advisor Public Health and Clinical Oversight (PHCO), UK Health Security Agency since April 2022.

His recent past roles included:
• Lead Clinical Advisor Lighthouse Labs and local advisor for Milton Keynes Lighthouse Laboratory Network of UK NHS Test and Trace between April 2020 and March 2022
• Clinical Director of Viapath Pathology Laboratories at King’s College Hospital between 2017 and 2021
• Chair of Panel of Examiners for Virology at Royal College of Pathologists between 2018 and 2023

On the SARS-CoV-2 testing front, he had a UK-wide leadership role to implement NHS Test and Trace, Secretary of State’s and PMO’s strategies on mass SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing within the newly created Lighthouse Laboratory network. This involved strategic advice, assay design, operational, troubleshooting, validation of assays and its more efficient variations, setting up guidance on test specifications, interpreting lab-generated test results, selection of qualified staff, provide guidance on dash board creation, quality assurance approaches leading to UKAS accreditation, help investigate clinical incidences and provide feedback to UK HSA. His responsibilities included evaluating, getting MHRA approval and implementing cutting edge technologies like UltraDX SARS-CoV-2 N1/N2/RP assay (LGC, Biosearch Technologies) in UK Biocentre, Milton Keynes, an End-Point PCR as the main assay within a £6.5 million project. End-Point PCR was then implemented within Rosalind Franklin Laboratory, Leamington Spa Lighthouse laboratory, which went operational in summer of 2021. UK Biocentre, Milton Keynes at one point had a capacity to test 150,000 samples per day.
His role also included developing and signing off the rules for Velsara [then known as Ugentec] FastFinder machine-learning software for interpretation of PCR results. Further, he was involved in trouble shooting of pre-analytical sample logistics work streams and post-analytical NHS Digital work stream. The Lighthouse Laboratory Networked formed the biggest SARS-CoV-2 RNA laboratory testing capacity in Europe at its peak and individually, some of the biggest laboratories in the world. In addition, he advised the Public Health Clinical Oversight (PHCO) group on antigen testing, Health and Safety, troubleshooting, NHS COVID Pass algorithms and assisted in responses to Freedom of Information requests and Parliamentary Questions. Outside of the lighthouse laboratory network, he maintained his routine hospital-based clinical virology work including being on-call.

He was awarded O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in Queen’s New Year’s Honours list 2022 for services to Healthcare Science particularly during COVID-19.

Dr. Cristian Tomasetti is the Director of the Center for Cancer Prevention and Early Detection at City of Hope, Professor and Director of the Division of Mathematics for Cancer Evolution and Early Detection In the Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine of the Beckman Research Institute, and Professor and Director of the Division of Integrated Cancer Genomics of the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

Dr. Tomasetti’s work is recognized internationally for his paradigm-shift contributions to the current understanding of cancer etiology and tumor evolution. By combining mathematical modeling, statistical analysis, and machine learning, with experimental, epidemiological, and DNA sequencing data, he has provided the first quantitative evidence for the large role in cancer causation played by the normal, i.e. endogenous, accumulation of somatic mutations in the cells of the human body. As an applied mathematician, he also currently leads the effort to develop novel blood tests and classification algorithms for the early detection of cancer as well as for monitoring cancer patients.

Before joining City of Hope and TGen, he was an Associate Professor of Oncology and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University with appointments in the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, in both the Department of Oncology (Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center) and the Department of Biostatistics (Bloomberg School of Public Health).

Dr. Tomasetti holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park (Dec. 2010). After his Ph.D., he was a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biostatistics of the Harvard School of Public Health and in the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Jan. 2011 – Jun. 2013), after which he became a faculty member at Hopkins (Assistant Professor, Jul. 2013 – Dec. 2017).

Greg Tsongalis is the Director of the Center for Clinical Genomics and Advanced Technology (CGAT) at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) in Lebanon, NH and a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. His area of expertise is in the development and implementation of clinical molecular diagnostic technologies. He has authored/edited thirteen textbooks in the field of molecular pathology, published more than 250 peer reviewed manuscripts, and has been an invited speaker at both national and international meetings. He has served on numerous committees of the AACC, ASIP, FASEB and AMP where he is a past President. He serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals and also serves on numerous corporate scientific advisory boards.

Clare Turnbull MD PhD FRCP FRCPath MFPH is Professor of Translational Cancer Genetics in the Division of Genetics and Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research. Having trained as a Clinical Geneticist, her clinical work at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust focuses on management of patients and families with genetic susceptibility to cancer. She is also an honorary consultant in Public Health Medicine with NHS Digital, supporting them in data amalgamation activities. From 2014 to 2020, Clare worked as Clinical Lead for Cancer Genomics for the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project.
Much of her research focuses on statistical, population and public-health-related analyses to better implement cancer susceptibility genetics for risk stratification, cancer early diagnosis and prevention. She is in process of launching ‘CG-MAVE’, a program developing massive functional assays to understand variant pathogenicity in cancer susceptibility genes. She leads a £4.3 million CRUK-funded Catalyst Award: ‘CanGene-CanVar: Data Resources, Clinical and Educational Tools to leverage Cancer Susceptibility Genetics for Early Detection and Prevention of Cancer’ program. She is also leading BRCA-DIRECT: initially a CRUK-funded program piloting digital delivery of BRCA-testing in breast cancer patients, now being adapted with NHSE as standard-of-care (i) in unselected women with breast cancer across North London and (ii) as a national community-based program of testing in the Jewish population.

Dr. Karen E. Weck is Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Professor of Genetics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where she is Director of Molecular Genetics and Pharmacogenomics and Medical Director of the Clinical Molecular Genetic Pathology Laboratory.

Dr. Weck served as President of the Association for Molecular Pathology in 2020 and a member of the AMP Executive committee and Board of Directors from 2019-2021. She has served on multiple committees for AMP and is currently an active member of the AMP Professional Relations Committee and Co-Chair of the Pharmacogenetics Workgroup of the AMP Clinical Practice Committee.

Dr. Weck received Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine degrees from Duke University, residency training in Laboratory Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, and is boarded in Clinical Pathology and Molecular Genetic Pathology. She was Assistant Director of Molecular Diagnostics at the University of Pittsburgh from 1999-2004, and has been at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine since 2004. She has over 20 years’ experience developing molecular diagnostic testing and has served as a consultant or advisor to numerous commercial and professional organizations over her career.

Dr. Weck has been co-investigator of several NIH-funded grants to implement exome/genome sequencing for diagnosis of genetic diseases from prenatal testing to adults and of the UNCseq tumor sequencing study to implement genomic sequencing for somatic mutation testing in cancer. She has been co-investigator of several institutional clinical trials to study the clinical utility of pharmacogenomics guided therapy. She is a member of the UNC Program for Precision Medicine in HealthCare and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Genetics Advisory Committee.

Dr. Williams is the Vice President, Clinical Genomics Operations & Chief of Staff at Cache DNA in San Francisco, California, USA. She is an EBMG Board Certified Clinical Laboratory Geneticist (ErCLG), and a registered Clinical Scientist (Genomics) (UK, HCPC) with additional certifications from ASCP. She completed her PhD in Molecular Pathology at Nova Southeastern University, an ACGME/ABMGG fellowship at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, an Execs on Deck Fellowship, and her Executive Master of Business Administration (Healthcare) at Yale University. Her expertise includes transitioning laboratories to the highest medical laboratory standards to demonstrate the quality and reliability of their service, addressing emerging issues in access to genomic testing, and supporting the recognition, certification, and global awareness of Laboratory Genomic Professionals. She has authored several papers and recommendations and served on various working groups and committees, including AMP’s Economic Affairs Committee. She has received awards such as ASCP’s “40 Under Forty,” “Lab Superstar Award,” and Women Who Code’s “Applaud Her Awards.” Currently, she is creating breakthrough technologies to address the access and utility of biological samples by helping labs store and manage genetic materials. She is dedicated to mentoring and supporting those pursuing careers in precision medicine.

Dr Brent Wood obtained his MD and PhD from Loma Linda University followed by a residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of Washington in Seattle. After a fellowship in Hematopathology at the University of Washington, Dr. Wood accepted a faculty position in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington where he worked as a Professor and Director of the
Hematopathology Laboratory. His responsibilities include extensive clinical service work and teaching Hematopathology to medical technology students, medical students, residents and fellows. Flow cytometry is an area of particular interest for Dr. Wood and he is responsible for implementing the first use of 9 and 10 color flow cytometry in the clinical laboratory and exploiting its potential for the identification of minimal residual disease in acute lymphoid and myeloid leukemia. His laboratory serves as one of two national reference laboratories for the identification of minimal residual disease in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia for the Children’s Oncology Group and is involved in similar protocols with the Southwest Oncology Group. He has recently moved to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as the Director of Hematopathology in late 2020.