Dr. Eimear Kenny, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and Genetics, and the Founding Director of the Institute for Genomic Health. She leads research at the interface of genomics, medicine, and computer science. She uses data science and massive-scale databases of genomic information to improve human health. Her research spans several different areas, including population and statistical genetics; machine-learning approaches for genomic discovery for rare and common diseases; genomic risk prediction for preventive health; clinical trials in genomic medicine; and digital app development for precision medicine. Her goal is to lead a new paradigm for genomic research embedded in health systems and to enable genomic medicine on a global scale. She is a scientific advisor to many initiatives in government, non-profit and industry arenas.

Research Topics:

Genetics, Genomics

Ruhollah “Roohy” Shemirani is Postdoctoral fellow at Institute for Genomic Health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He got his PhD degree in Computer Science from University of Southern California. His research is mainly focused on population genetics and the development of scalable methods to analyze genetic/genomic data in large scale biobanks of diverse populations. He previously developed iLASH, a tool that can find segments of the genome shared by individuals, inherited from a common ancestor. He is currently working on leveraging these shared segments to extract information about the architecture of traits and disease with higher accuracy; especially aiding with addressing the challenges that rise from the inclusion of rare genetic variation data in analysis pipelines in the form of Whole Genome Sequence data. The results of this work will also help improve the accuracy of Polygenic Risk Scores in admixed populations by decreasing the bias in such studies; making them more informative. He is also a part of a consorted effort to combine information about recent ancestry across three large biobanks securely. This will help us get a better understanding of recent genetic ancestry and population structure in the United States.

Christa Caggiano, PhD is a computational geneticist interested in developing equitable genomic tools that translate to the clinic. She received her B.S. in biological physics and art history from Brandeis University, where she studied transcriptional accessibility of circadian genes in the Rosbash lab. She obtained her PhD in bioinformatics from UCLA. Her PhD research in the Zaitlen lab focused on designing algorithms and technology for cell-free DNA screening applications, and studying the genetic and environmental risk of populations living in Los Angeles. Christa’s postdoctoral research at Mt Sinai will focus on studying complex disease risk in diverse populations.

Sinead Cullina is a 4th year PhD candidate in the Kenny lab. Her research primarily uses genetic epidemiology and population genetics techniques to study population specific health burdens in the BioMe biobank. Her work particularly focuses association testing to identify disease risk alleles in admixed and founder populations. Other work includes investigating patterns of ancestry within populations and the clinical characterization of genetic variants.

Bryce Rowan is a Genetic Epidemiologist, who previously worked with the BioVU and MVP datasets at Vanderbilt University, looking at the genetic architecture of kidney disease. He is a 2nd year PhD student at Mount Sinai co-supervised by Joseph Buxbaum and Eimear Kenny. 

Joe Rothstein, MS, is an Instructor in the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and the Department of Population Health Science and Policy.  His research consists of the development of statistical and computationally intensive methods and their application to genomic, epidemiological, and medical imaging data with the goal of improving our understanding of the genetic basis of human disease. 

Kathleen Ferar, PhD recently completed her PhD in Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied methods for integrating genomic research practices into routine clinical care. She is excited to help build new genomic medicine initiatives and facilitate data management with the IGH team as a Clinical Informatics Analyst.

Travis J. Mize, PhD currently serves as a Bioinformatician II of the Institute for Genomic Health (IGH) at Mount Sinai. He earned his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2023 from the University of Colorado Boulder, under the guidance of Dr. Luke Evans at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics. Dr. Mize’s research portfolio encompasses various facets of human genetics, such as performing genome- and transcriptome-wide association studies, high-throughput sequencing analysis, and translation of animal model findings to humans. During his doctoral studies, he became interested in the genetic architecture of complex traits, particularly those relating to psychiatric illness. Notably, he developed techniques for conducting TWAS on diverse ancestral cohorts and explored alternative gene-SNP annotation strategies to enhance the precision of SNP heritability analysis within LDSC frameworks. In his current role at IGH, Dr. Mize aims to elevate analytical efficiency by spearheading the development of large-scale pipelines tailored to investigate the genetics of human disease. He is committed to IGH’s overarching mission, which is to harness genomic data to both prevent and treat diseases within clinical care, with a strong focus on advancing health equity. 

Kate Bonini is a genetic counselor in the Institute for Genomic Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She primarily works on the NYCKidSeq and eMERGE studies, both NHGRI-funded programs to study the implementation of genetic testing in diverse New York City populations. An active member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, Kate is the co-chair of the Research Special Interest Group and the vice chair of the Public Policy Committee. She also is a member of the Mount Sinai Clinical Ethics Committee, and she serves as the co-chair of the Education/Return of Results (ROR) working group for the Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research (CSER) consortium. Kate received an MS in genetic counseling and an MA in Medical Humanities and Bioethics from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. 

Jacqueline Odgis is a genetic counselor in the Institute for Genomic Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She works on the NYCKidSeq project, a research program funded as part of the Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Based Research (CSER) consortium, and the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) program. Her research interests include translation of exome and whole-genome sequencing into clinical practice and demonstration of the clinical utility of web-based genetics and genomics educational tools for patients, providers, and the public. She is a graduate of the Genetic Counseling Program at ISMMS, and is currently a PhD candidate in the Clinical Research Program at Mount Sinai.

Priya Marathe received her MS in genetic counseling from Northwestern University. She works on the NYCKidSeq and eMERGE study, both NHGRI-funded programs to study the implementation of genetic testing in diverse New York City populations. Previously, she worked at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a research assistant for a comparative effectiveness randomized clinical trial for patients with advanced hematologic malignancies. She is also involved in a support group, SAHARA, for South Asian individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer or a cancer predisposition syndrome. 

Lisa Wang is a Project Manager in the Institute for Genomic Health (IGH) at the Icahn School of Medicine. She works closely with the IGH Director Dr. Eimear Kenny on system operations management for the institute and on special projects. In particular, Lisa also works as Consortia Project Manager for the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium, for which Dr. Kenny is a collaborator. Lisa received her Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from The University of Memphis. In her spare time, Lisa enjoys spending time with and playing with her two dogs Milo and Koa.

Christine Cowles is a Research Project Manager in the Institute for Genomic Health (IGH) at the Icahn School of Medicine. She has worked in public health research in New York City throughout her career. Currently she manages the eMERGE study, which is a NHGRI-funded program to study the implementation of genetic testing in diverse New York City populations. Christine received her Master of Public Health degree from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Nairovy Ruiz is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Institute for Genomic Health at Mount Sinai. She is involved in patient recruitment, administrating questionnaires in English and Spanish, and collecting patient specimen. Nairovy is a graduate from Medaille University, where she received a Master of Arts Degree in Psychology.

Karen is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Institute for Genomic Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She works on the eMERGE study and is involved in data collection, sample collection & tracking, and patient outreach. Karen received her Bachelor’s in Public Health from the University of California, Irvine, and is currently finishing up her MPH in Epidemiology at New York Medical College.

Maria Camila Riaño is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Institute for Genomic Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She received her Bachelors in Neuroscience from Bowdoin College and is excited to pursue her MD in coming years. Currently Maria Camila primarily works on the eMERGE study, recruiting English and Spanish-speaking patients to further genomics and clinical medicine. She most enjoys discussing genetics with patients with less background in science. In her free time, Maria Camila enjoys painting, soccer and trying new foods!