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Associate Professor
Chief Biobanking Officer
I am an accomplished scientist with advanced degrees in biochemistry, molecular biology, and toxicology, and over seven years postdoctoral experience in human genetics, epigenetics and molecular biology. I have extensive expertise in biorepository management and over six years of hands on detailed knowledge of biobanking operations.
Coriell provides custom biobanking solutions, products and services to scientists around the globe. I lead Coriell’s efforts in this arena, making strategic decisions to optimize efficiency, productivity, and ensure that deliverables are achieved and that Coriell utilizes best practices and meets the needs of the scientific community. I am responsible for ensuring the Institute adheres to the ISO9001:2015 standard for Coriell’s quality management system. In this capacity, I monitor and audit multiple quality and production parameters, driving Coriell’s ongoing efforts to streamline and improve processes. I also identify customer and industry requirements and develop new products and services to meet them, steering all long-term strategic decisions.
As a member of Coriell Executive Leadership Team, I am involved in driving the strategic mission of the Institute and take my responsibility to ensure Coriell’s success and continued relevance and growth seriously. I have strong decision‐making and problem‐solving abilities and a first‐rate track record of success and meeting deadlines on high‐impact projects.
Prior to becoming Chief Biobanking Officer, I served as Director of Laboratory Operations and principal investigator at Coriell for the NIGMS Human Genetic Cell Repository, sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). In the NIGMS Repository PI role, I managed the scientific and business operations of the biobank, recruited new samples, adopted process efficiency measures, identified new directions, and interfaced with governmental project officers and scientific advisory committee members. In March 2015, I was awarded a $14M U42 grant to fund the continued operations of the NIGMS Repository, through an open competition from the NIGMS. In late 2018, I transitioned from PI to Key Personnel on the NIGMS U42 grant, and my Co-PI Dr. Deborah Requesens was promoted to the position of PI. In my current role and as a member of Coriell’s leadership team, I continue to work with the NIGMS Repository team to ensure the security and continued and future success of this phenomenal resource. I also previously served as principal investigator for the Congenital Heart Disease GEnetic NEtwork Study (CHD GENES) Biorepository at Coriell. CHD GENES is a multi-center, prospective observational cohort study and participants are recruited from the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium's (PCGC) centers of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-sponsored Bench to Bassinet (B2B) Program. The CHD GENES Biorepository contains over 200,000 vials of biospecimens from individuals with congenital heart disease. DNA from these samples are used in research to identify new genes and new mutations associated with heart disease.
Prior to joining Coriell, I was an associate scientist at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at Temple University School of Medicine. I completed my postdoctoral fellowships at Fels, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Fertility Clinic, employing whole genome genotyping, expression and methylation platforms, and bioinformatics to study the effect of assisted reproductive technologies on the human epigenome and transcriptome. I earned my undergraduate degree in biochemistry, an advanced degree in toxicology, and doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
EducationPostdoctoral Fellow - Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA PhD - University of Birmingham, UK MS - University of Birmingham, UK BS - University of Birmingham, UK |
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