GDC Team

NCI GDC Leads

Louis M. Staudt

Director, Center for Cancer Genomics

Dr. Staudt received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Harvard College in 1976. He was awarded a Medical Scientist...

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Jean Claude Zenklusen

Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Genomics

Dr. Zenklusen was born 1964 in Visp, Switzerland. He earned a Master in Sciences (Biochemistry) from the...

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Melissa Porter

Director of Operations for the NCI Center for Cancer Genomics (CCG)

Melissa Porter received her B.S. in Biology from Michigan Technological University in 1996 and her M.S. in Biology ...

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Former NCI GDC Leads

• Zhining Wang (2014 – 2022) – Former GDC Project Officer and a Biomedical Informatics Specialist at the NCI Center for Cancer Genomics (CCG). Dr. Wang is currently a Biomedical Informatics Project Manager for the Center for Biomedical Informatics & Information Technology and serves as a GDC liaison to the Cancer Research Data Commons (CRDC).
• Daniela Gerhard (2014 – 2021) – Former Director of the Office of Cancer Genomics. Dr. Gerhard provided leadership on foundational programs such as the Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatment (TARGET) initiative, the Cancer Genomic Characterization Initiative (CGCI), and the Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI).

University of Chicago GDC Leads

Robert Grossman

GDC Principal Investigator

Dr. Grossman is a faculty member at the University of Chicago and the Principal Investigator for the NCI GDC project...

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Zhenyu Zhang

GDC Co-Principal Investigator

Dr. Zhang is the Director of Bioinformatics in the Center for Translational Data Science (CTDS) at the University of Chicago...

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Bill Wysocki

Director of User Services

Dr. Wysocki is the Director of User Services for the GDC in the Center for Translational Data Science (CTDS)...

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Former University of Chicago GDC Leads

• Yan Liu (2018 – 2020) – Former Director of Architecture for the GDC at the Center for Translational Data Science (CTDS). Yan applied her industrial experience in software engineering and architecture, to achieve scaling in complex systems at the GDC.
• Michael Fitzsimons (2014 – 2019) – Former Director of User Services and Outreach for the GDC in the Center for Data Intensive Science (CDIS) at the University of Chicago. Dr. Fitzsimons worked with all users to provide the cancer research community with GDC's unified repository and cancer knowledge base that enables data sharing across cancer genomic studies in support of precision medicine.
• Ray Powell (2014 – 2019) – Former Director of Cloud Operations for the Center of Data Intensive Science (CDIS) at the University of Chicago. Mr. Powell was responsible for architecting and maintaining large scale computer and network infrastructure.
• Janice Lodato (2014 – 2019) – Former Senior Technical Project Manager for the Genomic Data Commons at the University of Chicago’s Center for Translational Data Science. Ms. Lodato is worked with technical teams to deliver solutions that provide an optimal user experience.

Former Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) GDC Leads Supporting the University of Chicago

• Lincoln Stein (2014 – 2020) – Program Director, Informatics and Bio-computing, at the OICR. Dr. Stein is responsible for the management and analysis of large integrative cancer research projects including the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and provided OICR leadership on the GDC.
• Christina Yung (2014 – 2020) – Director of Genome Informatics and Principal Research Scientist at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). Dr. Yung provided leadership in the development of the GDC Data Portal and associated analysis and visualization tools.
• Junjun Zhang (2014 – 2020) – Lead bioinformatician at the OICR. Mr. Zhang used his experience in designing integrated biological database systems, such as the Database of Genomic Variants (DGV) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) to support GDC development.
• Vincent Ferretti (2014 – 2018) – Former Associate Director, Bioinformatics Software Development and Senior Principal Investigator at the OICR. Dr. Ferretti was responsible for large scale cancer projects that integrate big data technologies, including GDC's Data Portal.
• Francois Gerthoffert (2014 – 2019) – Former Project Manager at the OICR. Mr. Gerthoffert was responsible for managing teams building GDC‘s front-end applications.
• Shane Wilson (2014 – 2017) – Former Engineering Manager at the OICR. Mr. Wilson was responsible for developing GDC's modern web applications.

Leidos Biomedical Research GDC Leads

Sharon Gaheen

GDC Technical Project Manager

Ms. Gaheen is a Technical Project Manager for Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. and is the Leidos project manager for GDC...

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Himanso Sahni

GDC Technical Lead

Mr. Sahni is a technical lead for Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. and is the Leidos Technical Lead for GDC...

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