The Lab

Elaine Lyon comes from the University of Utah, where she served as medical director for molecular genetics and genomics at the Associated Regional and University Pathologists (ARUP) Laboratories. At ARUP, she designed and validated laboratory assays for clinical use, including genomic sequencing. During her tenure, Lyon helped established four laboratory sections at ARUP: Molecular Genetics, Fragment Analysis, Genetics Sequencing and Genomics. She also held a faculty position at the University of Utah School of Medicine as professor of pathology.

Lyon received her PhD in medical genetics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and completed a fellowship in clinical molecular genetics at the University of Utah. She has served as president of the Association for Molecular Pathology and led the organization’s Task Force for the Framework for the Evidence Needed to Demonstrate (FEND) Clinical Utility. Lyon is also a member of the board of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. Lyon brings more than 20 years of clinical genomics experience to the institute. Her national and international efforts have promoted appropriate molecular genetic clinical testing.

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David Bick is the chief medical officer and faculty investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, the Medical Director of The Smith Family Clinic for Genomic Medicine and assistant laboratory director of the HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Lab, LLC. He comes to HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Lab from the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) where he was professor in the department of pediatrics and the department of obstetrics and gynecology. At MCW, he was the director of the Clinical Sequencing Laboratory at Medical College of Wisconsin, director of the Advanced Genomics Laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, medical director of the Genetics Clinic at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and chief of the division of genetics in the department of pediatrics at MCW.

Bick received his medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1981 and completed his residency in pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn. At the Yale University School of Medicine, Bick completed a fellowship in human genetics and pediatrics in 1986, followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship in human genetics in 1987. Bick is board-certified in pediatrics, clinical genetics and clinical molecular genetics. He is a leader in the field of genomic medicine and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and reviews. Bick’s laboratories at MCW and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin were the first in the world to offer whole genome sequencing as a clinical test.

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Ghunwa Nakouzi joined the HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Lab as remote associate director in 2018. Nakouzi received her PhD in Genetics from Case Western Reserve University in 2009. She completed her clinical fellowship training at University Hospitals-Cleveland Medical Center and is board certified in clinical molecular genetics and clinical biochemical genetics. Until recently, Nakouzi maintained her biochemical genetics experience by serving as assistant medical director of the Biochemical Genetics Lab at the Cleveland Clinic. Nakouzi has experience in both molecular and biochemical genetic clinical assay development and validation. Her dual-specialty empowers her with knowledge in a wide array of genetic disorders and with the ability to correlate results from molecular and biochemical tests to reach more accurate diagnoses for patients.

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Brett Sundlof is clinical lab supervisor of the HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Lab. Brett previously worked at Sequenom as supervisor of sequencing modules supporting the MaterniT21 diagnostic test, utilizing Illumina-based NGS of cell-free fetal nucleic acid, and analysis of the relative amount of trisomy 21, 18, 13. Prior to that, Sundlof worked at LabCorp in molecular genetics and oncology laboratories, where he analyzed patient samples for inherited genetic diseases and gene mutations. Sundlof graduated with B.S. in health science from the State University of New York, SUNY Brockport.

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Melissa Kelly completed her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She continued her learning experience as a post-doctoral fellow, working with Drs. Howard Jacob and Elizabeth Worthey at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Later, she became the Lab Supervisor for Software Development and Informatics, under the direction of Dr. Worthey. During her time at HudsonAlpha, Melissa has been involved in a variety of projects, including diagnosis of rare disease through the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, identification of genetic modifiers in cystic fibrosis, and development of software for genomic analysis and interpretation.

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James Holt completed his PhD in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he developed novel bioinformatics algorithms for processing, storing, and querying sequencing data from Collaborative Cross mice. He continued his studies as a post-doctoral fellow in the Software Development and Informatics group at HudsonAlpha, focusing on development and application of algorithms and methods for analyzing clinical sequencing data in the context of rare disease patients. While at HudsonAlpha, he has developed pipelines for identifying pathogenic structural variants, algorithms for identifying diploid-triploid mixoploidy, and machine learning methods for prioritizing clinical variants.

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Nadiya Sosonkina graduated from the School of Pharmaceutical Science, Health Sciences University of Hokkado, Hokkaido, Japan in 2012. In the following year, she joined the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI where she ultimately joined the Howard Jacob laboratory, focusing on genetics of rare diseases. In 2015, Nadiya moved to HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, along with Jacob laboratory. In 2017, Dr. Sosonkina was selected as a trainee in the UAB-HudsonAlpha genomic Medicine Training program funded by National Human Genome Research Institute. Her research focused on analysis and evaluation of novel approaches to improvement of the diagnostic outcome for rare and undiagnosed diseases. She has a particular interest in the genetics of autism spectrum disorder. Upon completion of her fellowship, Dr. Sosonkina was offered a position of Clinical Translational Scientist at the Clinical Services Laboratory (CSL). She has joined CSL in July of 2019 and is excited about this opportunity to apply her knowledge and skills in human genetics and genomic medicine to the improvement of patients care.

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Kelly Williams completed her PhD at Iowa State University in 2009. Since then, she has enjoyed working at HudsonAlpha, first as a postdoctoral fellow in the Myers Lab and later as a senior scientist in the Absher Lab. Kelly has over 15 years of laboratory and analytical research experience in multidisciplinary fields including nutrition, toxicology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genomics, epigenetics, and transcriptomics.

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Tatiana Shvetsova joined HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Laboratory and Genomic Service Laboratory in 2017. Tatiana has advanced experience as a Research Scientist in sequencing, genomics, molecular biology, cell culture, plant biology, and other fields. She worked with several well-known companies prior to HudsonAlpha, including Kailos Genetics, ThermoFisher Scientific, and Open Biosystems. She contributed to new product development and product validation and has a number of related publications. She also has academic experience as a Laboratory Director and Research Assistant at Oakwood College, Huntsville, AL. Tatiana gained her MS degree at Moscow State Education University, Moscow, Russia before she moving to the US with her family.

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Jamicia Gay joined the HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Lab in July 2020 as a clinical lab technician. Gay earned her B.S in biomedical science from Auburn University. Prior to joining the Institute, she was a clinical research assistant volunteer with Pinnacle Research Group and a laboratory assistant in the Auburn Department of Biological Sciences.

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Meghan Pool is the Lab Business Coordinator for the HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Laboratory. She joins the team with a B.S. in Healthcare Management from the University of Alabama Birmingham and is currently enrolled at the University of North Alabama for her MBA. Prior to joining the Institute, she was the Business Manager of Alabama Psychological Services Center.

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