Team Bios
WARFARIN study PI: Elizabeth Ofili MD, MPH
Elizabeth Ofili MD, MPH is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Health Transformation. Dr. Ofili is Associate Dean for Clinical Research, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Cardiology and Director, Clinical Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine. Through the Community Physicians' Network, Dr. Ofili and her colleagues at MSM have established large databases in hypertension, heart failure and diabetes which promote best practices by translating scientific discoveries to patient care. Dr Ofili has received numerous scientific research and health policy awards, including The Dr. Daniel Savage Scientific Award and the Nannette K. Wenger Award for Health Policy. Dr. Ofili was recognized as one of American's leading physicians by Black Enterprise Magazine; one of the nation's top twenty-five female physicians by Heart and Soul Magazine, Who's Who in Black Atlanta, and the National Library of Medicine "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians." Dr. Ofili is a Past-President of the National Association of Black Cardiologists, and serves/has served on the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine Committee on Global Research and Development in Cardiovascular Diseases; the American Heart Association's Science Advisory Committee, National Research Committee, and Go Red for Women Campaign; the National Institute of Health Clinical Research Advisory and NHLBI Women's Health Advisory Committee. She is editor-in-chief of the Digest of Urban Cardiology, and is on the editorial boards for The American Heart Journal, Echocardiography and Heart and Soul Magazine. Dr. Ofili has published over 130 scientific papers, book chapters and abstracts, and made over 600 scientific presentations on hypertension, dyslipidemia, heart failure and coronary artery disease.
Executive & Steering Committee Member: Brian F. Gage, MD, MSc
Dr. Gage is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and a national expert in the pharmacogenetics of warfarin therapy. Over the past decade, he has published dozens of manuscripts about antithrombotic therapy and has developed clinical prediction rules for bleeding ("HEMORR2HAGES") and for stroke ("CHADS2). He collaborated on the discovery of polymorphisms in VKORC1, CYP4F2, and CALU that affect warfarin and has validated SNPs in several other genes that affect warfarin. His team was the first to develop warfarin pharmacogenetic dosing algorithms and the first to use them. They have developed the most accurate pharmacogenetic dosing algorithms even, which they have made publicly available at www.WarfarinDosing.org. They are using these algorithms to conduct two multi-centered, randomized trials to quantify the effect of pharmacogenetic dosing on laboratory and clinical outcomes in patients beginning warfarin dosing: COAG and GIFT of Warfarin.
Executive Committee Member: Mandeep R. Mehra, MD
Dr. Mehra, a nationally recognized cardiologist with expertise in the treatment of heart failure and heart muscle damage, cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory devices, is professor and head of cardiology at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine. Dr. Mehra obtained his cardiovascular training at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, where he sub-specialized in the field of advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation. He is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases. He has published more than 300 articles on advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation, including various treatment modalities and alternatives to transplantation. His specific research interests in cardiac transplantation focus on post-transplant coronary arterial disease, new immunosuppressive therapy to improve heart transplant outcomes, and bringing genomic and proteomic science (the study of protein interactions in the body) to the bedside. In the field of heart failure, his research has focused on the role of new devices and novel serum markers to guide diagnosis and therapy. Dr. Mehra has lectured at national and international professional meetings and has received numerous honors and awards. He serves on the board of directors of the International Society of Transplantation and is a member of the education and practice guidelines committees for the Heart Failure Society of America.
Steering Committee Member: An Pang Chieng, M.D.
An Pang Chieng, M.D. is an internal medicine specialist. He received both a B.S. in Biochemistry and Medical Doctor degree from Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California. He began his practice with Riverside Medical Clinic, a multi-specialty specialty practice of over 100 physicians in 1991 and served as the medical director from 1997 to 2003. He currently is in private practice managing El Sereno Medical Group. The Group consists of three clinic sites, serving over 15,000 patients, mostly Hispanic and Chinese ethnicity. He also co-founded and is the medical director of Advance Primary Care Network, an independent physician association consisting of 44 primary care physicians. Dr. Chieng has special interest in anti-aging medicine, pharmacogenetics, and the applications of genetic diagnostics in clinical practice.
Steering Committee Member: Alan Wu, Ph.D., D.A.B.C.C.
Alan H.B. Wu, Ph.D., is Chief of Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology at San Francisco General Hospital and Professor of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. He received B.S. degrees in chemistry and biology at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and a Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical chemistry at Hartford Hospital. He is certified by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry in Clinical Chemistry and Toxicological Chemistry. Dr. Wu's research interest has been in three areas within the field of clinical chemistry laboratory. He has been involved at the national and international levels with development and use of biochemical markers for cardiovascular disease including CK-MB, myoglobin, troponin, B-type natriuretic peptide, and markers of myocardial ischemia, and stroke. He also has a long history of analytical, clinical, and forensic toxicology. In both of these areas, Dr. Wu has co-authored the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory Medicine Practice Guidelines. More recently, Dr. Wu has developed research and clinical programs in pharmacogenomics in support of the UCSF clinical pharmacogenomics laboratory. Among the areas of interest include pharmacogenomics for anticoagulants, especially warfarin, chemotherapeutics (tamoxefin, irinotecan), and drugs that can induce hypersensitivity reactions (abacavir, anticonvulsants).
Steering Committee Member: Szilard Voros, M.D.
Dr. Voros holds the position of Medical Director; Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MR) and Computed Tomography (CT) at the Fuqua Heart Center, Piedmont Hospital, in Atlanta, GA. Responsible for clinical operations as well as for research. Research interests include imaging of atherosclerosis using various modalities, investigating the effect of lipid-modifying therapies on atherosclerosis using novel imaging approaches. Dr. Voros received his medical training at University Medical School of Pecs; Pecs, Hungary and continued with residency in Internal Medicine; University of Alabama at Birmingham; Birmingham, Alabama. He also worked as a fellow and chief fellow in cardiovascular Diseases; University of Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia
Steering Committee Member: L. Bernardo Menajovsky, M.D., M.S.
Dr. Menajovsky is the Director of Vascular Medicine and Anticoagulation at Scott & White Healthcare. He also holds the position of Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Dr. Menajovsky received his medical degree from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru, M.D. and MS from the University of Iowa in Clinical Epidemiology. He also received training as a Fellow in Internal Medicine at University of Iowa and Residencies at The Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland and Hospital Arzobispo Loayza, Lima, Peru. Dr. Menajovsky's practice emphasizes vascular medicine and thrombosis. He has received numerous awards, authored many medical publications and presentations.
Dean Sproles
CEO, Iverson Genetic Diagnostics
Dean Sproles founded Iverson Genetic Diagostics in 2007. Today, he serves as the company's Chairman, CEO, and President. Mr. Sproles founded Iverson Genetic Diagnostics after 16 years as a scientist and inventor focused on gene expression technologies. He has private laboratory experience in proteomics, genomics, and transcriptomics. In addition to commercial experience, Dean has worked as a researcher at the University of Virginia and at Oregon Health Sciences University. During his tenure as a researcher, he published on the creation and implementation of global standards in transcriptomic research. In addition to his work at Iverson Genetic Diagnostics, Dean serves on the Board of Directors at the Swank MS Foundation. He is also a member of the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) Associates Network. Dean is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the Citadel where he earned a BS degree from the school’s Honors Program.
David Hammond, CCRC, CCRA
Clinical Studies Director, Iverson Genetic Diagnostics
Mr. Hammond has held positions as site coordinator, study monitor, project manager and clinical director with an expertise in developing clinical strategies for medical devices and implementing the clinical and regulatory pathways required for their approval. His experience also includes the design and implementation of standard operating procedures for clinical research organizations and international clinical trial operations. An annual lecturer on clinical research activities for the UW Extension Certificate Program in Biomedical Regulatory Affairs, he is also a former member of the national committee overseeing the educational and certification programs for the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.
Laurance Ferreri PhD
Laboratory Director, Iverson Genetic Diagnostics
A native of Illinois, in 1965 Dr. Ferreri received a BS in Biology from Northern Illinois University. In 1971 he obtained his PhD in Physiology/Biochemistry from Iowa State University investigating hormonal influences on cellular DNA and RNA concentrations in rat breast tissue. In 1975, after teaching college for 4 years, Dr. Ferreri went to the Cleveland Clinic Department of Atherosclerosis for his first post-doctorate, researching effects of estrogens on cholesterol synthesis. In order to gain formal training as a Clinical Chemist, Dr. Ferreri then attended the University of Washington Medical School's post-doctoral training program in Laboratory Medicine. Following his training, Dr. Ferreri left Seattle to become a technical director for a major commercial reference laboratory in Dallas Texas (National Health Laboratories, now called LabCorp) until 1987. He then returned to the Seattle area, working as Clinical Chemist and/or Laboratory Director for a several hospital and commercial laboratories. He is an officer in the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Association of Clinical Chemists and is a member of the Washington State Clinical Laboratory Advisory Council.
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