Seven Bridges Announces Scientific Advisory Board

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seven Bridges, the biomedical data analysis company, today announced its Scientific Advisory Board, which formalizes relationships with leading global experts in genomic medicine, bioinformatics and cancer research. Members of the Seven Bridges Scientific Advisory Board will advise on the company’s product designs and strategies for cloud-based biomedical data analysis, as well as share their knowledge about key challenges and opportunities in the field of genomic research.

“We are honored that these respected experts have agreed to participate in our SAB and look forward to working with them to constantly advance the state of the art in data analysis for our large-scale pharmaceutical and government clients.”

The inaugural members of the Seven Bridges Scientific Advisory Board include:

• Dr. James Knight, Director of Bioinformatics and Research Scientist at The Knight Lab at Yale University. Established in the summer of 2014, the Knight Lab holds a joint appointment with Yale’s Department of Genetics and the Yale Center for Genome Analysis. Dr. Knight’s focus in the Genetics department is the alignment, variant calling and annotation of exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing datasets, both for cohorts of research samples and for individual clinical samples. His focus for the YCGA is providing bioinformatics support to Yale (and non-Yale) investigators who utilize YCGA’s next-generation sequencing facility. Prior to his role at Yale, Dr. Knight was an R&D Fellow and Bioinformatics Director at 454 Life Sciences and CuraGen Corporation, and has been active in the bioinformatics field for the last 25 years.
• Dr. Jan Korbel, Principal Investigator and Senior Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Holding a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, he performed his Postdoc at Yale University where he co-developed the paired-end mapping methodology for characterizing genomic structural variation by next-generation sequencing. With expertise in Human Genetics and Computational Biology, Dr. Korbel is particularly interested in understanding determinants of genomic DNA rearrangement formation and selection, for example in the context of enhancer hijacking or catastrophic DNA alterations (chromothripsis). He has a leading role in the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Initiative, and was elected into the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2015, and into the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 2016.
• Dr. Charles Lee, Scientific Director and Professor, The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) for Genomic Medicine. Dr. Lee is a distinguished biomedical scientist who first discovered widespread structural variation in the human genome in 2004, in the form of copy number variation (CNV). Prior to joining JAX, he was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and a clinical laboratory geneticist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics (FAMG) and the president of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO International). Dr. Lee’s honors include a Scientific Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the 2008 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, and the George Brumley Jr. Memorial Award from Duke University. He is also an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Thompson Reuters Citation Laureate. In 2012, he received the Chen Global Investigator Award from HUGO.

• Dr. Heng Li, a research scientist at the Broad Institute, working with David Reich and David Altshuler to understand the genetic causes of disease. He is currently focusing on the analysis of new sequencing data, population genetics and phylogenetics and is the principal developer of several bioinformatics projects, including SAMtools, BWA, MAQ, TreeSoft and TreeFam. Prior to joining the Broad Institute, Dr. Li was a postdoctoral fellow of Richard Durbin at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and was also previously involved as a Group Leader in several projects at Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Chinese Academy of Science.
• Dr. Gholson Lyon, head of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Lyon Lab and research scientist at the Utah Foundation for Biomedical Research. His group focuses on human genetics and genomic medicine, with an emphasis on diseases with severe neuropsychiatric manifestations, including Tourette syndrome, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), autism and schizophrenia. Dr. Lyon studied biochemistry and molecular biology as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, received an M.Phil. in genetics from the University of Cambridge, England and a Ph.D. in pharmacology and peptide chemistry at Rockefeller University. He received his M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College. He started his independent research career in 2009, after finishing clinical residencies in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. In addition to his research on the genetics of neuropsychiatric illnesses, Dr. Lyon is focusing on the genetic basis of rare Mendelian diseases and the development of clinical-grade exome and whole genome sequencing.

• Dr. Gokhan Hotamisligil, James S. Simmons Professor of Genetics & Metabolism, Chair, Department of Genetics & Complex Diseases, Director, Sabri Ülker Center for Metabolic Research; Assoc. Member, Harvard-MIT Broad Institute, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Joslin Diabetes Center. Dr. Hotamisligil’s research efforts focus on the molecular and genetic basis of common and complex diseases, particularly obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. His research examines the mechanisms of nutrient sensing and response pathways as they relate to immune and metabolic homeostasis. He is an internationally recognized leader with seminal contributions including the discoveries that defined immunological components of obesity and diabetes, discovery of novel hormones regulating lipid and glucose metabolism, and endoplasmic reticulum as a key organelle regulating cellular and organismic metabolism, and its role in obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes. Dr. Hotamisligil pursues interdisciplinary paths, collaborations, and industry alliances towards development of novel preventive and therapeutic strategies against chronic metabolic diseases. His work has resulted in >180 highly cited papers and resulted in multiple patents. Dr. Hotamisligil has been recognized with fellowships and awards including Markey, Pew, and AAAS Fellowships, the Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award of ADA, Wertheimer Award from IASO, Koç Science Award, TUBITAK Science Award, Roy Greep Award of the Endocrine Society, and the International Danone Prize. He earned his M.D. at Ankara University and Ph.D. at Harvard University.

“As we continue to build on Seven Bridges’ vision to connect the world’s biomedical data for better research and health, input from leaders in the fields of genetics, bioinformatics and cancer research will prove invaluable to our efforts,” said Brandi Davis-Dusenbery, CEO of Seven Bridges. “We are honored that these respected experts have agreed to participate in our SAB and look forward to working with them to constantly advance the state of the art in data analysis for our large-scale pharmaceutical and government clients.”

About Seven Bridges

Seven Bridges is the biomedical data analysis company accelerating breakthroughs in genomics research for cancer, drug development and precision medicine. The scalable, cloud-based Seven Bridges Platform empowers rapid, collaborative analysis of millions of genomes in concert with other forms of biomedical data. Thousands of researchers in government, biotech, pharmaceutical and academic labs use Seven Bridges, including three of the largest genomics projects in the world: U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Genomics Cloud pilot, the Million Veteran Program, and Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project. As the NIH’s only commercial Trusted Partner, Seven Bridges authenticates and authorizes access to one of the world’s largest cancer genomics dataset. Named one of the world’s smartest companies by MIT Technology Review, Seven Bridges has offices in Cambridge, Mass.; Belgrade; London; Istanbul; and San Francisco.