Precision Medicine Retreat Held at Georgia Tech

The Precision Medicine day-long retreat took place on March 2 at the Georgia Tech TSRB building.  The retreat, organized and facilitated by Deirdre Shoemaker, was the first step toward establishing strong connections between Emory University and Georgia Tech at the intersection of data science and precision medicine. The retreat was hosted by Srinivas Aluru, the co-executive director of IDEaS at Georgia Tech, and Lance Waller, the chair of the department of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Emory University.

The morning involved hearing about the opportunities and challenges related to precision medicine and data science from Georgia Tech’s and Emory’s points of view, with Srinivas Aluru, Krish Roy, Jon Duke, Greg Gibson, and May Wang delivering for Georgia Tech and Lance Waller, Mike Zwick (presented by Lance Waller), Vicki Hertzberg and Arshed Quyyumi delivering for Emory. The afternoon was devoted to break-out sessions to identify critical needs and paths forward.  Several action items were identified.

Event participants and affiliations:

• Deirdre Shoemaker (professor in the School of Physics, College of Science at Georgia Tech)
• Srinivas Aluru (professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering, College of Computing, and co-executive director of IDEaS at Georgia Tech)
• Krish Roy (Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair, Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech)
• Jon Duke (director of Health Analytics and Informatics at GTRI at Georgia Tech)
• Greg Gibson (professor in the School of Biological Sciences in the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech)
• May Wang (associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech)
• Lance Waller (Rollins Professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University)
• Mike Zwick (associate professor in the departments of Human Genetics and Pediatrics in the School of Medicine at Emory University)
• Vicki Hertzberg (professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University)
• Arshed Quyyumi (professor of medicine, Division of Cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine)