An International Team of Experts
The scientists of COV-IRT bring together their unique domains of expertise to improve the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Team members are participating and contributing their talents as individuals, not as representatives of their respective employers across academia, government, industry, and research institutions.

ACADEMIA
Baylor College of Medicine
Kjersti Marie Aagaard
Professor
Prenatal Clinical Perspectives
Michael D. Jochum
Postdoc
Sample & Data Collection and Analysis
Jeffrey Rogers
Professor
Nonhuman Primate Genetic Modelling
Fritz Sedlazeck
Assistant Professor
Bioinformatics & Data Analysis
Medhat Mahmoud
Postdoc – Sedlazeck Lab
Bioinformatics & Data Analysis
Saumik Dana
Scientific Programmer
Bioinformatic Analysis
Boston University School of Medicine
Franklin & Marshall College
Fundação Getúlio Vargas (Getúlio Vargas Foundation)
Alberto Paccanaro
Professor
Machine Learning & Computational Biology

Suzana Santos
Post Doc – Paccanaro Lab
Machine Learning & Computational Biology

Mateo Torres
Post Doc – Paccanaro Lab
Machine Learning & Computational Biology

Diego Galeano
Post Doc – Paccanaro Lab
Machine Learning & Computational Biology
Georgetown University

Juan Saavedra
Adjunct Professor
Physiology & Pharmacology
Giuseppe Astarita
PI
Metabolomics & Lipidomics
Georgia State University

Mohammad Javad Feizollahi
Assistant Professor
Data Curation

Maryam Ghotbaddini
MSc Student
Data Analysis
Georgia Institute of Technology

Dan Cornforth
Postdoc – Whiteley Lab
Microbial Analysis

Marvin Whiteley
Professor and Co-Director
Microbial Analysis and RNA Sequencing

Andrew Conley
Bioinformatics Scientist – Jordan Lab
Analysis Assistance

King Jordan
Professor and Director
RNA-Seq Data Ancestry Analysis

Shashwat Nagar
Grad Student – Jordan Lab
Analysis Assistance

Lavanya Rishishwar
Team Lead – Jordan Lab
Analysis Assistance
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Christian Münch
Group Leader
Mitochondrial Analysis & Quantitative Proteomics
Iowa State University

Urminder Singh
Grad Student
Bioinformatics & Machine Learning

Eve Wurtele
PI, Professor
Bioinformatic and Metabolic Analysis, Orphan Gene Expert
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Ivo Grosse
PI
Bioinformatic Analysis
Morehouse School of Medicine
Oregon Health and Science University

Nicole Vasilevsky
Assistant Professor
Clinical Data Analysis

Melissa Haendel
Director, Translational Data Science
Phenotyping, Informatics, & Genetics
Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan)

Tommaso Fontana
Grad Student
Machine Learning & Knowledge Graph Development
Queen’s University Belfast

Willian da Silveira
Research Fellow
Analysis Assistance

Johnatas Dutra Silva
Research Fellow
Analysis Assistance & Pulmonary Consultation
Rice University

Lydia Kavraki
Professor
Computer Science

Kathryn Kundrod
Graduate Student
Diagnostics

Rebecca Richards-Kortum
Director, Professor
Bioengineering

Vicky Yao
Assistant Professor
Analysis Assistance

Leo Elworth
Postdoc – Treangen Lab
Analysis Assistance

Huw Ogilvie
Postdoc
Analysis Assistance

Nicolae Sapoval
Grad Student – Treangen Lab
Bioinformatic Analysis

Todd J. Treangen
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Subgroup lead – Viral Evolutionary Genomics

Sherry Gao
Professor
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Therapeutics

Rob Raphael
Professor
Biophysics & Bioengineering

Luay Nakhleh
Professor
Phylogenomics, Population Genomics, & Evolutionary Analyses

Kristen Curry
Grad Student
Microbial & Metagenomic Computational Analyses

Winnie Li
Student – Treangen Lab
Microbial & Metagenomic Computational Analyses

Yilei Fu
PhD Candidate – Treangen Lab
Viral & Microbial Computational Analyses

Yunxi Liu
PhD Candidate – Treangen Lab
Viral Analyses

Advait Balaji
PhD Candidate – Treangen Lab
Viral Analyses

Carla Sipahioglu
Student
Microbial Analyses

Michael Nute
Post Doc
Bioinformatic Analysis
Royal Holloway University of London

Alberto Paccanaro
PI
Machine Learning & Computational Biology
Rush University Medical Center
San Jose State University

Anupama Kozhiyalam
Research Associate
Bioprocessing
Stanford University

Tejaswini Mishra
Research Scientist
Biomonitoring & Correlation of Results

Alokkumar Jha
Instructor of Medicine
Multi-Dimensional Disease Modelling
Texas A&M College of Medicine

Paul J. Defigueiredo
Associate Professor
Microbial Pathogenesis

Fen Wang
Professor
Modelling & Clinical Result Interpretation
Texas Advanced Computing Center
University of California San Diego

Kathleen Fisch
Executive Director
Bioinformatics & Data Analysis

Sara Brin Rosenthal
Senior Bioinformatics Scientist
Analysis & Drug Design
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Robert Griffin
Professor
Radiation and Cancer Biology

Peter Corry
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Oncology
University of Chicago

Kyle Hernandez
Assistant Professor
Data Analysis

LaRon Hughes
Clinical Data Curator
Assist with Clinical Data
Lilia Becker
Student
Computer Programming
Viktorija Zaksas
Senior Analyst
Software Development & Data Analysis
University of Colorado Boulder

Anushree Chatterjee
Assistant Professor
Diagnostic and Therapeutic R&D

Tiffany J. Callahan
PhD Candidate
Computational Bioscience

Mirela Alistar
Assistant Professor
Microbial Analyses & Therapeutics
Computational Analysis & Computer Programming
Universidade da Coruña

Susana Ladra
Associate Professor
Bioinformatics Algorithm Design
Università degli Studi di Milano (University of Milan)

Elena Casiraghi
Associate Professor
X-Ray Imaging & Covid-19 Risk Prediction Methods

Luca Cappelletti
PhD Candidate
X-Ray Imaging & Covid-19 Risk Prediction Methods

Gabriel Tavares
PhD Candidate
X-Ray Imaging & Covid-19 Risk Prediction Methods

Dario Malchiodi
Associate Professor
Machine Learning & Bioinformatic Analysis

Jessica Gliozzo
PhD Candidate
X-Ray Imaging & COVID-19 Risk Prediction Methods

Marco Frasca
Assistant Professor
X-Ray Imaging & COVID-19 Risk Prediction Methods

Giorgio Valentini
Professor
Machine Learning for Precision Medicine, X-Ray Imaging & COVID-19 Risk Prediction Methods

Gabriella Trucco
Assistant Professor
X-Ray Imaging & Covid-19 Risk Prediction Methods
University of Helsinki
University of Iowa
University of Lisbon
University of Maryland

Donald K. Milton
Professor
Environmental and Occupational Health

Feyruz Rassool
PI, Professor
DNA Damage and Repair
University of Maryland School of Medicine
University of North Carolina
University of Oklahoma
University of Pennsylvania
University of Puerto Rico
University of Sao Paulo
University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston
University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio
University of Texas Medical Branch

Mark Emmett
Professor
Glycolosis & Testing

Anna Nia
MD-PhD Candidate
Bioengineering & Pathway Analysis
Universidade de Vigo
Universitat de València
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin

Clark Xu
Research Data Analyst
Bioinformatic Analysis & Machine Learning
Utah State University
Weill Cornell Medical College

Jonathan Foox
Postdoc – Mason Lab
RNA Sequencing Assistance

Christopher E. Mason
Associate Professor, Director
RNA-Seq Data Provision & Analysis

Cem Meydan
Research Associate – Mason Lab
RNA Sequencing Assistance