Jonathan Haines, PhD, is a genetic epidemiologist, Mary W. Sheldon M.D. Professor of Genomic Sciences, Chair of Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, and Director of the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology. Dr. Haines has extensive experience in all aspects of genetic epidemiology with a particular focus on data analytics.  He has applied his expertise to numerous neurological and ophthalmological disorders having located and identified over 20 causal and 200 associated loci.  His interests are in adapting and applying statistical computational methods to biomedical big data.  Learn more...

Dana Crawford, PhD, is Associate Professor of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences within the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology.  Dr. Crawford received her Ph.D. at Emory University in genetics and molecular biology in 2000 and then trained as a post-doctoral fellow as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2000-2002) and as a senior fellow at the University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences (2002-2006).  Prior to her most current position, Dr. Crawford spent eight years as tenure-track faculty in Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Investigator in the Center for Human Genetics Research at Vanderbilt University.  As a genetic epidemiologist at CWRU, Dr. Crawford’s broad research interests include applying genetic variation data to large-scale epidemiologic and clinical cohorts to better understand human genotype-phenotype associations with an emphasis on diverse populations.  Learn more...

Jill Barnholtz-Sloan, PhD, is the Associate Director for Clinical Informatics in the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology, the Associate Director for Bioinformatics at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan is multi-disciplinary, trained in biostatistics, population genetics, and human genetics; her role in team science has been essential for multiple successful multi-disciplinary research projects.  She is responsible for managing bioinformatics analysis of high throughput “omics” data and implementing and maintaining a clinical informatics solution for research.   She is also the Director of the CWRU GI SPORE Biostatistics Core, Director of the CWRU BETRNet Bioinformatics Core, and Co-Director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core Facility.  Her current projects include the Ohio Brain Tumor Study (OBTS), which has served as a multi-site tissue source site for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and currently serves as a multi-site therapeutic clinical trial network for the Governors Ohio Clinical Trials Collaborative.  She also manages the Central Brain Tumor Registry for the United States (CBTRUS) and is involved in the NCI funded GLIOGENE consortium.  Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan has extensive experience with multi-site brain tumor patient recruitment, biospecimen collection and storage and clinical annotation.  Learn more...

Jessica Cooke Bailey, PhD, MA, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences with CWRU's School of Medicine. Her research has focused on applying sophisticated statistical methods to understand the genetic basis of glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration in European Americans, including the Amish. Dr. Cooke Bailey is now expanding her work to harness the power of electronic health record (EHR) data coupled with genomics and other “omics” data to understand why African Americans are at increased risk for glaucoma compared with other populations. Understanding glaucoma risk factors will begin to address health disparities with the goal of informing treatment options. Learn more...

William S. Bush, PhD, MS, is Associate Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology at Case Western Reserve University.  Dr. Bush received his PhD at Vanderbilt University in Human Genetics in 2008 and then continued as a post-doctoral fellow in the Neurogenomics Training Program at Vanderbilt.  Dr. Bush was recently named a Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation Scholar.  As a human geneticist and bioinformatician, Dr. Bush’s research interests include understanding the functional impact of genetic variation, developing statistical and bioinformatics approaches for integrating functional genomics knowledge into genetic analysis, and the use of electronic medical records for translational research.  Learn more...

E. Ricky Chan, PhD, is a Research Scientist and Director of the Computational Biology Core.  His focus for the core is to provide a gateway for labs seeking assistance in the field of bioinformatics and computational analysis.  This need has grown tremendously as additional research projects are leveraging the use of next-generation sequencing methods but lack the computational expertise to handle large datasets.  Dr. Chan received his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Adams, mapping ENU-induced mutations in mouse models of blood disorders, uncovering a recessive mutation in the TPO receptor that leads to thrombocytopenia with over-dominance.  He continued his training as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. David Serre at the Cleveland Clinic where his focus was on the genomic characterization of the malarial parasite Plasmodium vivax, revealing a common duplication of the Duffy binding protein in Malagasy individuals which may be involved in the uncanny observation of P. vivax infecting Duffy negative individuals in that region.  During his post-doc training Dr. Chan also developed and implemented a novel method and pipeline for the characterization of microbiome data using 16s sequencing in several disease models and studies including colon cancer, metabolic uptake, and restoration of colonization resistance of nosocomial pathogens after antimicrobial treatment.  From these highly collaborative experiences Dr. Chan has become an expert in the processing and analysis of next-generation sequencing data.  As the director of the Computational Biology core he continues to develop and test new genomic and computational tools to assist in various research studies including but not limited to infectious disease, cancer, metabolism, and the microbiome.  Please contact Dr. Chan if you have a project requiring analytical assistance with next-generation sequencing data including whole genome or exome sequencing, RNA-Seq, locus-specific sequencing, SNP and variant detection and comparative genomics.  Learn more...

Aaron Goldenberg, PhD, MA, MPH, leads the Ethics Core for the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology and is Associate Professor in the Department of Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He is also the Director of Research for the Department and the Associate Director of the Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law, a NIH Center of Excellence in Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Research for the National Human Genome Research Institute. He earned his PhD in Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University. Since joining the faculty at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Goldenberg’s work has focused on the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics and genomics in clinical and public health settings. His research program has been grounded by a number of major project areas, including: 1) ethical implications of expanding newborn screening programs; 2) storage and use of perinatal and pediatric biological specimens for future research; 3) implications of genetics and gene-environment interactions for racial/ethnic minorities and other communities experiencing health disparities. Learn more...

Mark Beno, MSM, is Senior Director of Strategic Operations for the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology.  Mark received his Master’s in 2016 from the Weatherhead School of Management (Case Western Reserve University) as part of the inaugural cohort in the Master’s of Science in Management program with a focus on healthcare.  A 27-year employee of Case Western Reserve University, with a B.A. in Biochemistry (CWRU), prior to joining the CICB, Mark was the administrative and finance manager for multiple University research departments, and was involved in several multi-institutional research efforts.  He serves on multiple University standing committees, including the Retirement Plans Oversight, Fringe Benefits, and Health Advisory committees.

Scott M. Williams, PhD, is a professor and director of the Epidemiology & Biostatistics graduate studies program in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences. He also is a professor with the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences. Both departments are part of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Williams is an expert in the genetics of complex human disease, including the genetic risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and susceptibility to infection. An experienced population geneticist, he studies how genes, either singly or in interactions with the environment, affect disease risk in different populations. Williams has extensive experience in graduate education, having developed the PhD program in human genetics at Vanderbilt University and served as program director of other institutions’ PhD programs. Before coming to CWRU, he was a professor of genetics at the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, where he served as founding director of the Center for Integrative Biomedical Sciences and associate director of the Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences.