The Wisconsin Center of Excellence in Genomics Science is pleased to announce its Advisory Board members.  This Advisory Board is made up of external members as well as advisors with in-depth knowledge of the Center’s research. The Advisory Board plays a key role in evaluating the work of the Center. The Advisory Board will meet with Center faculty and researchers this fall to review the work done thus far and make suggestions on future directions, changes and potential alternative approaches.

External Advisory Board Members:

	Neil Kelleher, Ph.D. Professor Director, Proteomics Center of Excellence Northwestern University Evanston, IL  Dr. Kelleher’s laboratory has three main areas of research: custom instrumentation for Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FTMS), Nuclear Signaling and Natural Products.  More specifically, the lab’s main interests lie in the enzymology of natural product biosynthesis, mass spectrometric-based studies of the “Histone-Code,” and development of FTMS for Top Down Proteomics (i.e. analyzing intact proteins directly; no proteases).
	Richard Myers, Ph.D. President, Director and Investigator HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology Huntsville, AL Dr. Myer’s research focuses on molecular basis of human inherited diseases and traits, including Huntington disease, Parkinson disease, bipolar disease, cancer, atherosclerosis, resistance to infectious agents, and differential responses to environmental assaults; Human population genetics;Functional genomics, including genome-scale analysis of cis-acting sequences, DNA binding proteins and epigenetic action involved in human gene regulation; Genomic basis of vertebrate diversity.
	Oliver Rando, Ph.D. Assistant Professor University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester, MA The Rando lab is broadly interested in epigenetic inheritance, but most of our research focuses on one putative carrier of epigenetic information – the nucleoprotein complex known as chromatin. They utilize “genomics” tools such as DNA microarrays and high-throughput sequencing to measure chromatin structure over entire genomes at single-nucleosome resolution, with the eventual goal of determining how chromatin states are established and maintained.

Additional Advisors:

Robert Deschenes, Ph.D. Professor and Chair of Molecular Medicine University of South Florida Tampa, FL Dr. Deschenes’ research group and collaborators are currently focused in two general areas. The first deals with the posttranslational modification and the subcellular localization of cancer signal transduction proteins. The second deals with stress signaling and the characterization of histidine kinases.

David Mitchell, Ph.D. Assistant Professor University of South Florida Tampa, FL Dr. Mitchell’s research addresses and understands some of the complex molecular signal transduction mechanisms in nature using the model organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. He is focusing on two research objectives: a) understanding the complex interplay between cellular membranes and proteins that are peripherally associated with these membranes and b) characterizing the factors which regulate Palmitoyl Acyl Transferases (PAT), an enzyme that posttranslationally attaches long chain fatty acids to proteins.

A team of Wisconsin researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University will receive $8 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop technology that provides new ways to study genes.

The funding will go to the newly-established Wisconsin Center of Excellence in Genomics Science to support this collaboration.  Read more about this grant in the press releases below.

NIH CEGS press release

Medical College of Wisconsin press release