Developmental
Genomics Core-D Staff
Co-directors:
Bruce
Korf, M.D. and Ludwine
Messiaen, Ph.D.
Other
Key Personnel Associated With Core-D
In
addition to Core Core-D co-directors Dr. Korf and Dr. Messiaen,
key personnel associated with the Developmental Genomics Core
include:
Christina
Barger, M.S. (Genetic Counselor/Study Coordinator)
Ms. Barger is a board-certified genetic counselor who joined
the UAB Department of Genetics in September, 2006. She has
worked with Dr. Korf coordination of clinical research studies,
especially in studies on neurofibromatosis, tuberous sclerosis
complex, and genodermatoses. Ms. Barger will be responsible
for tracking projects through the core and working with investigators
in IRB document preparation, patient recruitment, and enrollment
of patients into studies.
Michael
Crowley, Ph.D. (Genotyping) Dr. Crowley is director
of the Genomics Core Facility in the Heflin Center for Human
Genetics. The Genomics Core facility provides sequencing,
SNP genotyping and gene expression services to the UAB research
community and outside investigators. This year the Core has
generated over 45,000 sequencing runs, has produced approximately
25,000 SNP genotypes, run 500 samples for mutation analysis
on the dHPLC, and has processed over 350 Affymetrix Gene
Chips for expression analysis.
Chiquito
Crasto, Ph.D. (Bioinformatics) Dr. Crasto is an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics. He is
Director of Bioinformatics at the Heflin Center for Human
Genetics and has a part-time appointment at the Center for
Nutrition-Gene Interaction. His research contributions lie
in creating and managing tools to process and analyze genetic
and genomic information arising from micro-array based experiments.
Dr. Crasto has extensive research experience in bioinformatics
and computational biology at the Center for Medical Informatics
and Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of
Medicine and at the Institute for Basic Research at the Fox
Chase Cancer Center. He has led the discovery of odor-olfactory
receptor interactions through computational modeling and
dynamic simulation studies32, 33. Dr. Crasto has also led
a genomics/proteomics effort in the study of olfactory receptors.
He is responsible for the maintenance and bioinformatics
development of the Olfactory Receptor Database (ORDB), a
consortium representing the work of 100 laboratories worldwide34.
Dr. Crasto serves as ORDB’s Scientific Coordinator.
Dr. Crasto has created several data and text mining tools
to mine structured data from large scale databases (GENBANK,
PUBMED, GEO, SWISSPROT, PDB) and information from the unstructured
text of the biomedical literature35-38.
Xiangquin
Cui, Ph.D. (Statistical Genetics) Dr. Cui is an
Assistant Professor in the Section on Statistical Genetics
in the Biostatistics Department of the School of Public Health.
Her research interests are in the exploration of genetic
and molecular bases of complex biological phenomena using
statistical genetics approaches39, 40. Her expertise includes
microarray experimental design and data analysis, quantitative
trait analysis, and high dimensional equivalence studies.
Fady
Mikhail, M.D., Ph.D. (Molecular Cytogenetics) is
an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics and
assistant director of the postnatal cytogenetic lab. He was
certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG)
in Clinical Cytogenetics in 2007. The postnatal cytogenetic
lab processes ~1,300 blood samples, ~1,000 bone marrow samples,
and ~2,400 FISH samples per year. Dr. Mikhail established
a new array CGH laboratory in September 2006, with the numbers
of clinical requests of array CGH testing steadily increasing.
Dr. Mikhail’s research interests include using molecular
cytogenetic techniques, including array CGH, to identify
novel submicroscopic genomic gains or losses in patients
with unexplained IDD and/or DD41.
