Perspectives from ASHG Members Working in Industry

Dr. Aradhya is the head of global medical affairs at Invitae in San Francisco. His group conducts research and education aimed at improving the use of genetic testing in healthcare globally. He is an ABMGG board-certified clinical molecular geneticist and cytogeneticist and a fellow of the ACMG. He completed medical genetics training in 2007 at Stanford University and received his Ph.D. in molecular and human genetics in 2001 at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Aradhya participated in the international Human Genome Project to sequence the X chromosome, has contributed to characterizing several Mendelian disorders, and helped develop professional guidelines for clinical laboratory genomics. Over the years, he has participated in the NIH ClinGen project, served on various committees of the ASHG, ISPD, and others, and as a Director of the ABMGG.

Dr. Chia-Yen Chen’s research focus on leveraginglarge-scale human genomic datasets and biobanks for psychiatric and cognitivegenetics. Dr. Chen is currently an Associate Director in the Human Geneticsgroup at Biogen. Before joining Biogen, he was a postdoctoral fellow at theMassachusetts General Hospital and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research atBroad Institute. Dr. Chen obtained ScM in biostatistics and ScD in epidemiologyfrom Harvard School of Public Health. He published novel statistical geneticsmethods, biobanks analysis with genetic and electronic health record data,common and rare variant association studies, and most recently, leveraginghuman genetics for drug target identification and validation. He has also beenan active member of international consortia and biobanks including thePsychiatric Genomics Consortium and FinnGen.

Meg is currently a Senior Director, Genomic Sciences at GSK where she leads the Collaborations & Capabilities group.  Her work supports GSK’s commitment to a research pipeline driven by genetics, by fostering the use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) linked biobanks for genetic research, driving strategies for defining analysis traits using EHR data and piloting genetics-driven recall studies of participants with loss of function variants from consanguineous populations.  This work builds on her experience in use of EHR data and genetic information with biobanks in Scandinavia, UK and US to identify and validate drug targets which is transforming the use of genetic data in drug discovery and development.  Meg joined GSK in 1995 as their first statistical geneticist and was promoted through a series of progressively challenging roles.  She is the sponsor of Genomic Sciences’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team and enjoys supporting the development of high school students and young scientists through coaching, summer internships and job shadowing.   

Meg earned an MA and PhD in statistics in 1995 and 1996 from Rice University after earning her BS in computer science and mathematics in 1991 from Vanderbilt University.  She became interested in genetics after a summer job at the University of Texas Medical Center where she studied genetic linkage analysis just as the Human Genome project was initiated.

Kaitlin Pugliese, PhD, MBA is a Senior Product Manager at Illumina focused on developing and managing product for genetic disease testing applications. Kaitlin completed her PhD in Chemistry at UC Irvine. After her first round of graduate school, Kaitlin spent over 5 years as a Scientist in Research and Technology Development at Illumina. Throughout this time, she achieved recognition as an accomplished inventor for her scientific contributions and served as the Chair for the Women at Illumina Network employee resource group. More recently, Kaitlin transitioned from R&D to Marketing for her current role and completed her MBA from UCSD’s Rady School of Management earlier this year

Dr. Han is a postdoctoral research fellow and an ABMGG Laboratory Genetics and Genomics fellow at the National Human Genome Research Institute. He obtained his PhD in human genetics from Johns Hopkins University studying the molecular genetics of cystic fibrosis. In his current role, Dr. Han studies the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders with a focus on lysosomal biology and lysosomal storage disorders. He is also currently in training for certification in laboratory genetics and genomics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics.