Biomedical Informatics Staff

Andrew P. Hodges, PhD

Technical Project Manager

Research Interests:
Health Information Technology; NGS, single-molecule and -omics data

Education:
Bachelor of Arts, Biology-Chemistry and Mathematics, Manchester College
Masters of Science in Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Medical School
PhD in Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Medical School

Contact
aphodges@health.ucsd.edu

Recent Publications:
Fuller, C.W. et al. Molecular electronics sensors on a scalable semiconductor chip: A platform for single-molecule measurement of binding kinetics and enzyme activity. Proc N Acad Sci 2022;119(5).
Leibel, S.L. et al. Metabolomic profiling of human pluripotent stem cell differentiation into lung progenitors. iScience 2022;25(2).
Kong, Y. et al. “Reprogram Enablement” as an Assay for Identifying Early Oncogenic Pathways by Their Ability to Allow Neoplastic Cells to Reacquire an Epiblast State. Stem Cell Reports 2020; 15(3).
Liu, T., et al. Multi-omic comparison of Alzheimer's variants in human ESC-derived microglia reveals convergence at APOE. J Exp Med 2020; .
Vega, R.B., et al. An improvement in skeletal muscle mitochondrial capacity with short‐term aerobic training is associated with changes in Tribbles 1 expression. Physiological Reports 2020;8(12).
Mackenzie, D.J., et al. DNMT3B Oncogenic Activity in Human Intestinal Cancer Is Not Linked to CIMP or BRAFV600E Mutation. iScience 2020;23(2):100838.

Angelina Cordaro, MS

Technical Project Manager

Research Interests:
Health Information Technology; Precision Medicine; Mental Health; OpenNotes

Education:
Bachelor of Arts (BA), English – Ashford University
Master of Science in Health Informatics (MSHI), National University

Contact
acordaro@health.ucsd.edu

Erickson Wilson, MD

Program Manager

Research Interests:
Precision Medicine

Education:
MD, Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo

Research Project:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact
emwilson@health.ucsd.edu

Jamie Le

Interim Consortium Communications Manager

Research Interests:
Public Relations; Communication; Marketing; Strategic Initiatives

Education:
B.A. in Journalism - San Diego State University

Research Project:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
jnl006@health.ucsd.edu

Jennifer Briscoe

Consortium Communications Manager

Research Interests:
Public Relations; Communication; Marketing; Strategic Initiatives

Education:
B.S. in Journalism - University of Kansas

Research Project:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
jabriscoe@health.ucsd.edu

Jessica Chapman, MA

Research Program Manager

Research Interests:
Disparities in Health, Public Health Issues

Education:
M.A. in Gender and Development - University of Sussex
B.A. in International Relations/French - University of San Diego

Publications:
Contemporary Gender and Development Issues, "The Appropriation of Motherhood: A Study of Teenage Pregnancy in the U.S. and UK," LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing

Research Project:
Strong Heart, iAgree, and CAST

Contact:
jrchapman@health.ucsd.edu 

Jihoon Kim, MS

Principal Statistician

Research Interests: 
Data Mining; Predictive Modeling; Bioinformatics; Statistical Learning
The overarching goal of my research is to discover clinically-actionable knowledge from (massive) data-sets.

Education: 
Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, University of California, San Diego (in progress)
MS in Statistics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
BS in Statistics and MS in Medicine (Bioinformatics), Seoul National University, South Korea

Contact: 
j5kim@health.ucsd.edu

Kaci Marques

Financial Analyst

Mathi Ganapathi

ResearchAssociate

Research Interests:
Health Data Management

Education:
B.S. in Biotechnology, Bharathidasan University

Research Project:
All of Us Research Project

Contact:
mvganapathi@health.ucsd.edu 

Melissa Aquino, MPH

Academic Program Coordinator/Research Coordinator 

Research Interests: 
Medical anthropology, health technology use, nutrigenomics, personalized medicine

Education:
San Diego State University:
-Bachelor of Applied Arts/Sciences in Foods and Nutrition;
-Bachelor of Science in Public Health (Health Science);
-Master of Public Health in Health Promotion and Behavioral Science

Research Projects:
RADx-rad COVID-19 Discoveries & Data Consortium Coordination Center
National Library of Medicine T15 Training Grant Fellowship
Department of Biomedical Informatics Summer Internship

Contact: 
m1aquino@health.ucsd.edu 

Morgan Conrad

All of Us Consortium Retention Manager

Research Interests:
Cancer, genetics, enzymatic chemistry, and precision medicine

Education:
B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - UC Santz Cruz

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
mconrad@health.ucsd.edu

Morgan Von Ebke

Executive Assistant

Contact:
dbmi-admin@health.ucsd.edu

Nancy Herbst, MBA

Director

Education:
MBA, National University
BA with a minor in legal studies, National University
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, UCSD and Rath & Strong

Publications:
Contributing author and book editor for the College and School Law: Analysis, Prevention, and Forms published by the American Bar Association (978-1-61632-008-9).

Service Work
Chair, Committee on the 2018 UCSD Women’s Conference (2017 – 2018)
Member, Supervising Committee, USE Credit Union (2016 – 2021)
Site Coordinator, WACUBO (Western Association of College and University Business Officers) (2015 – present)
Chair, Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee, Grossmont Union High School District (2011 – 2017)
Board Member, San Diego Future’s Foundation (Chair of the Audit and Education Subcommittees) (2010 – 2013)

Contact:
UC San Diego, BRFII, 5A19
858-822-2903
nherbst@health.ucsd.edu

Natalie Gonzalez

Research Project Coordinator 

Research Interests: 
Public Health Issues; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Mental Health; Social Justice; Preventative Health Care 

Education:
BA in Women's Studies, San Diego State University 

Contact: 
n8gonzalez@health.ucsd.edu 

Teresa Magdaleno Perez

All of Us Consortium Engagement Manager

Research Interests:
Community Relations; Marketing; Digital Communications; Precision Medicine; Mental Health; Health Disparities

Education:
Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA), School of Business, University of San Diego

Research Project
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact 
tmagdalenoperez@health.ucsd.edu

Tracy Layton, MS

Consortium Project Manager

Research Interests/Expertise:
Health research, especially focused on screening, prevention and treatment
Patient/participant outreach and recruitment
Screening and prevention education
Implementation of clinical care improvement, including improving clinical decision making in the clinical setting
Integrations with electronic health record systems and research systems

Education:
Master of Science, Biology - Northern Arizona University
Bachelor of Science, Microbiology - University of Arizona

Research Project:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
tlayton@health.ucsd.edu

Vira Danak Bhatt, MS

Clinical Informatics Specialist

Research Interests:
Health Information Exchange & Interoperability, Preventive Medicine, Data Science

Education:
Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Biochemistry, Gujarat University
Master of Science (MSc) in Bioinformatics, Gujarat University
Master of Science (MSc) in Health Informatics, University of California Davis

Contact:
vdanakbhatt@health.ucsd.edu

Adrianne Agsolid

Applications Programmer

Contact:
aagsolid@health.ucsd.edu

Brian Fox

Information Systems Analyst

Research Interests:
Machine Learning, health information technology

Education:
BS in Computer Science, San Diego State University

Contact
Befox@health.ucsd.edu

Edward O’Neill

Applications Programmer

Contact:
edoneill@health.ucsd.edu

Edwin (Ed) Bean, MS

Applications Programmer

Research Interests:
Physical Activity & Energy Expenditure, Natural Language Processing, Internet of Things, Software Process Improvement, Robotic Process Automation

Education:
Bachelor of Arts (BA), English Literature – University of California at Santa Barbara
Master of Science (MS): Health Informatics – University of California Davis School of Medicine

 Contact:
ebean@health.ucsd.edu

Faten Taha

Applications Programmer

Education:
Post Graduate Certificate in Mobile and Web Application, San Diego State University
Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, Baghdad University
Associate Degree in Web Development, Cuyamaca College

Research Interests:
Web application development, data structure, database analysis, human computer interface, web design.

Contact
FTaha@health.ucsd.edu

Gary Kean, MS

Bioinformatics Programmer

Research Interests:
Health Data Anonymization techniques; No SQL databases; Health care network adequacy

Education:
Masters of Science (MS): Health Informatics - University of California, Davis
Bachelor of Science (BS): Industrial Design - Illinois Institute of Technology

Contact:
gkean@health.ucsd.edu

Jesse King

Geographic Info Systems Programmer

Research Interests:
Health Data Anonymization techniques; Data Visualization; Data Science

Education:
Geographic Information Systems Certificate - American River College
Bachelor of Science (BS): Geography - Portland State University

Contact:
j8king@health.ucsd.edu

John William Claypool

Applications Programmer

Contact:
jclaypool@health.ucsd.edu

Kai Post, MS

Bioinformatics Programmer

Research Interests:
Bioinformatics; Electronic Medicine; Data Management and Analysis

Education:
MS in Biology, University of Virginia

Select Publications:
Pauthner M, Havenar-Daughton C, Sok D, Nkolola JP, Bastidas R, Boopathy AV, Carnathan DG, Chandrashekar A, Cirelli KM, Cottrell CA, Eroshkin AM, Guenaga J, Kaushik K, Kulp DW, Liu J, McCoy LE, Oom AL, Ozorowski G, Post KW, Sharma SK, Steichen JM, de Taeye SW, Tokatlian T, Torrents de la Peña A, Butera ST, LaBranche CC15, Montefiori DC, Silvestri G, Wilson IA, Irvine DJ, Sanders RW, Schief WR, Ward AB, Wyatt RT, Barouch DH, Crotty S, Burton DR  Elicitation of Robust Tier 2 Neutralizing Antibody Responses in Nonhuman Primates by HIV Envelope Trimer Immunization Using Optimized Approaches. Immunity. 2017; 46(6):1073-1088.e6.

Eroshkin AM, LeBlanc A, Weekes D, Post K, Li Z, Rajput A, Butera ST, Burton DR and Godzik Al. bNAber: database of broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014; 42(Database issue):D1133-9.

Mayya Sedova, Mallika Iyer, Zhanwen Li, Lukasz Jaroszewski, Kai W Post, Thomas Hrabe, Eduard Porta-Pardo, Adam Godzik; Cancer3D 2.0: interactive analysis of 3D patterns of cancer mutations in cancer subsets, Nucleic Acids Research. 2018; gky1098

Contact
k1post@health.ucsd.edu

Kevin J. Delaney, PhD

Database Administrator

Research Interests:
Data Visualization and Analysis; Sensor Fusion

Education:
PhD in Electrical Engineering, US Naval Postgraduate School

Contact
kjdelaney@health.ucsd.edu

Kevin Kunkel

Information Systems Analyst

Contact:
kkunkel@health.ucsd.edu

Marco Gonzales

Bioinformatics Programmer

Contact:
m7gonzales@health.ucsd.edu

Patrick Mao

Applications Programmer

Contact:
pmao@health.ucsd.edu

Ravinder Atwal

Clinical Applications Professional

Contact:
ratwal@health.ucsd.edu

Rob Anderson

Applications Programmer

Contact:
roanderson@health.ucsd.edu

Supreeth Shashjumar, PhD

Informatics/Machine Learning Programmer

Contact:
spshashikumar@health.ucsd.edu

Tyler Bath

Programmer Analyst

Research Interests:
User Based Design; Biomechatronics; Brain-Computer Interfacing

Education:
BS in Computer Science, UC San Diego

Posters & Publications:
To view past posters, presentations and magazine publications, please visit Publications and Pubmed Profile.

Projects:
MAGI, Web based microRNA sequence analysis
Flightdeck, VM launching webservice
iCONCUR
Strong Heart Study

Contact:
tbath@health.ucsd.edu

Dahen Ibarra Munoz

Clinical Research Coordinator

Research Interests:
Precision medicine, mental health disorders, and public health

Education:
MD, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California
BS (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) Certified

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Program (NIH)

Contact:
dibarramunoz@health.ucsd.edu

Daina Ferguson

Clinical Research Coordinator - Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Public health, mental health disorders, precision medicine and the neurological impacts of art

Education:
Associates in Fine Art
NHA Licensed & Certified Phlebotomy Technician I
Certified Medical Lab Assistant

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
dlferguson@health.ucsd.edu

Daisy Fierros Gonzalez

Clinical Research Coordinator – Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Precision medicine and genetics

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Program (NIH)

Contact:
dfierrosgonzalez@health.ucsd.edu

Daisy Villanueva

Clinical Research Coordinator – Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Mental health disorders; fetal alcohol syndrome; leukemia; and epilepsy

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)​

Contact:
davillanueva@health.ucsd.edu

Denisse Graciano

Clinical Research Coordinator – Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Immunology, autoimmune disease research, and precision medicine

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Program (NIH)

Contact:
dgraciano@health.ucsd.edu

Devin Tsumura

Clinical Research Coordinator

Research Interests:
Precision medicine and kinesiology

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Program (NIH)

Contact:
dtsumura@health.ucsd.edu

Elizabeth Pecoraro

Clinical Research Coordinator - Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Precision Medicine, Cancer, Clinical Trials, Public Health, and Child Development

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
epecoraro@health.ucsd.edu

Frine Bosworth

Clinical Research Coordinator - Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Infectious diseases, Autoimmune diseases/disorders, Precision medicine, Mental Health disorders, Geriatric diseases and clinical trials

Education:
Associate of Science - Nursing
EKG Technician
CPT I/Medical Lab Assistant

Research Projects:
COVID clinical trials
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
fbosworth@health.ucsd.edu

Gloree Miller

Clinical Research Coordinator

Research Interests:
Mental health disorders; artificial intelligence and its clinical applications; genomics; and immunology

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
gdmiller@health.ucsd.edu

Katherine Crouthamel

Clinical Research Coordinator – Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Precision medicine; clinical trials; public health, and active transportation

Education:
B.A. in Psychology - San Francisco State University
Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Health Professions - San Diego State University
Clinical Trials Design and Management Certificate - UCSD Extension

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
kcrouthamel@health.ucsd.edu

Lienwil Padillo

Clinical Research Coordinator

Research Interests:
Pediatrics/child development, immigration and social justice, language and culture, and neuropsychology/psychology/psychiatric medicine

Education:
B.S. in Human Developmental Sciences
B.A. in Sociology - Social Inequality

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
l2padillo@health.ucsd.edu

Mericar Domdom

Recruitment Manager

Research Interests:
Public health and precision medicine

Education:
B.S. Health Science with emphasis in Public Health - San Diego State University
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, UC San Diego

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
mdomdom@health.ucsd.edu

Oriana Aguilar

Lead Clinical Research Coordinator - Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Precision medicine and genetics

Education:
Associate of Science, Biological Sciences
Certified Phlebotomy Technician
Certified Emergency Medical Technician

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
oaguilar@health.ucsd.edu

Sharon Vizcarra Ham

Clinical Research Coordinator - Phlebotomist

Research Interests:
Genetics, public health, clinical trials, precision medicine and cancer

Education:
BBA Business Administration - Universidad Autonoma de Baja California
Project Management - Cetys Universidad
Lean and Six Sigma for Phlebotomist - National Center for Competency Testing
Certified Phlebotomy Technician - Universal Schools & Colleges of Health & Human Services

Research Projects:
All of Us Research Project (NIH)

Contact:
svizcarra@health.ucsd.edu