UFGI External Advisory Board to visit in November

Members of the Executive Advisory Board (L-R) Steven Clarke, Nancy Cox, Gerald Nepom, Stephen Rich, Barbara Schaal and Edward Wakeland.

The Genetics Institute External Advisory Board will be visiting Nov. 15-17. The board is made up of prestigious faculty from universities across the country. As external observers, they review the operations and research endeavors of the UFGI, and make suggestions for improvements.

Some of the members will also give talks during the visit.

“The External Advisory Board is intended to provide advice to the GI Director regarding strategic and administrative directions for the institute,” said UFGI Director Patrick Concannon. “They will provide expert opinions on how to make the Institute stronger, better recognized and more efficient.”

The board is made up of six faculty from other universities: Steven Clarke, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at University of California at Los Angeles; Nancy Cox, founding director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute at Vanderbilt University; Gerald Nepom, director of the Benaroya Research Institute and affiliate professor of immunology at the University of Washington, School of Medicine; Stephen Rich, founding director of the Center for Public Health Genomics and Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor and vice-chair of the Public Health Sciences Department at the University of Virginia School of Medicine; Barbara Schaal, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences and the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and Edward Wakeland, Edwin L. Cox Distinguished Chair in Immunology and Genetics and professor and chairman of the department of immunology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Concannon appointed the various members because of past professional collaborations and recommendations from UFGI faculty. What they have in common is that they all currently serve, or have in the past, in a leadership role at the institution.

“I want advice from the years of experience that these individuals have in leadership positions at their various institutions as applied to the challenges of maintaining and building the UFGI,” Concannon said. “How can we become stronger as a research Institute and become better recognized here at UF among the many institutes and both nationally and internationally?”

EAB Talk Schedule:

Tuesday, Nov. 17

8:30 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Gerald T. Nepom
Director of the Benaroya Research Institute and affiliate professor of immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine
“In Pursuit of Immune Tolerance”
Shands at UF North Tower, Room 6120

9:25 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Stephen S. Rich
Founding director of the Center for Public Health Genomics and Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor and vice-chair of the Public Health Sciences Department at the University of Virginia School of Medicine
“Genetic Studies in Type 1 Diabetes”
Shands at UF North Tower, Room 6120

10 a.m. – 11 a.m. Nancy J. Cox
Founding director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute at Vanderbilt University
“New Kinds of Data Integration: Genome x Transcriptome x EMR”
CGRC Auditorium 101

10:20 a.m. – 11:05 a.m. Edward K. Wakeland
Edwin L. Cox Distinguished Chair in Immunology and Genetics, professor and chairman of the department of immunology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
“Regulatory Variations, Immune System Diversity, and Susceptibility to Systemic Autoimmunity”
Shands at UF North Tower, Room 6120