Executive Leadership

Hannes Thor Smárason – Member of the Board of Directors, Interim CEO. Co-Founder of NextCODE Health
Hannes Thor Smárason is a prolific entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. Mr. Smárason co-founded NextCODE Health along with Dr. Jeff Gulcher. He has been a longtime advisor to deCODE and its venture investors Polaris Venture Partners and ARCH Venture Partners, and contributed to the strategy that culminated in the $415 million sale of deCODE to Amgen. Mr. Smárason previously served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of business and finance at the company (1997-2004) during which time deCODE achieved worldwide recognition as the global leader in analyzing and understanding the human genome. During his tenure Mr. Smárason led the first IPO by an Icelandic company in the U.S., structured and negotiated alliances with pharmaceutical companies, and led the strategic acquisition of a drug discovery company. Prior to joining deCODE he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company serving Fortune 100 clients in the finance, healthcare, and hospitality sectors. He also served as the chairman and CEO of Icelandair and its parent company FL Group in the mid- to late- 2000’s. Mr. Smárason has served on boards across a variety of sectors related to investment and advisory activity, and is active across a range of charitable organizations. He received his master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
Nurjana Bachman, PhD – Chief Business Officer

As Chief Business Officer, Nurjana is responsible for Claritas’s business development and partnering. Prior to co-founding Claritas, Nurjana was Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives and Business Development in the Technology and Innovation Development Office (TIDO) at Boston Children’s Hospital. In that capacity she facilitated partnerships between BCH and other entities to support BCH’s clinical and research mission, including the Life Technologies investment that resulted in Claritas. In addition Nurjana facilitated transactions with Shire to support rare disease research and Pfizer to develop bio-therapeutics. As a Licensing Manager at TIDO, she managed several hundred patents and was involved in over 100 transactions, including launching a start-up, licensing agreements, collaborations, material transfer agreements, and confidentiality agreements. Nurjana was awarded her BA in Biology with distinction from Swarthmore College and her PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Mary Ellen Cortizas, JD – Chief Operating Officer

Mary Ellen Cortizas joined Claritas as a founding member after twenty-eight years in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, including the last sixteen years as Administrative Director. In that role, Ms. Cortizas directed operations of all clinical laboratory programs with a $44m operating budget and $165m gross revenue including 4 divisions and more than 200 employees. Mary Ellen oversaw both the creation and multiple expansions of the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory Lab that has become the foundation for clinical operations at Claritas. She has participated in the evaluation, selection and implementation of multiple Laboratory and Hospital Information Systems. She represented Laboratory Medicine on oversight committees for Clinical Information Systems and Regulatory Readiness, and for the Human Resources Advisory committee. She has extensive expertise in state and federal regulation of clinical laboratories, including more than 20 successful inspections by the Joint Commission, the American Society of Blood Banks, and the FDA. During her time at BCH, she oversaw strategic planning that resulted in more than $50 million in sustained departmental improvements. She and the Clinical Genetics division chief submitted and were awarded a grant creating the BEST initiative (Bringing Expertise to Selecting Tests) and funded a group of lab professionals, clinicians, and genetic counselors to create practice guidelines for high complexity molecular tests. As a 15-year member of the Laboratory Directors forum of the Child Healthcare Corporation, Mary Ellen collaborates with her peers to develop standards of best practice in pediatric-centered clinical laboratories. Mary Ellen taught Laboratory Management at Northeastern University and has lectured on multiple topics including quality management, human resource recruitment and retention strategies, and organizational leadership and structure. She served on and chaired an American Society of Clinical Pathologists’ registration exam committee, preparing and analyzing certification exams. She obtained her BS in Biology from Tufts University and her JD from Suffolk University Law School.

John Thompson, PhD – Chief Technology Officer

John’s career has spanned pharmaceutical, next-gen sequencing, and genetic testing industries. Joining Claritas Genomics in 2014 as Chief Technology Officer, he has spearheaded novel genetic assays using NGS for diagnosing pediatric diseases and applying DNA sequencing to clinical problems. At Nabsys, he served as Head of Assay Development for three years and advanced the mapping and sequencing of DNAs hundreds of kilobases long using fully solid-state nanodetectors. Before that, he was Senior Director of Genomic Research at Helicos BioSciences for four years, helping to develop the first commercial single-molecule, next-generation sequencing platform and applying it to a range of DNA and RNA sequencing applications. These sequencing endeavors followed 20 years at Pfizer where he applied molecular biology and genetic approaches to identify novel therapeutic targets, to establish the genetic basis of drug response, and to characterize the genetics of drug-induced adverse events. Prior to joining industry, he was a Research Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Brown University researching lambda site-specific DNA recombination, DNA bending, and protein-DNA interactions. This followed a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Chemistry, in which RNA and DNA structure and chemistry were studied. His BS in chemistry is from Yale University.

Marcia Nizzari, M.S – Chief Informatics Officer

Marcia Nizzari has over 30 years of experience as a software architect, technical manager, and CIO/CTO. Prior to joining Claritas, she was Vice President of Engineering at PatientsLikeMe, Inc., a social network and research platform for patients with life-altering conditions such as ALS or Multiple Sclerosis. Over the past 13 years, she has held lead technologist positions in several biomedical institutes and companies, including the Whitehead Institute, Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, and Good Start Genetics, another clinical diagnostic laboratory. For six years, she was Director of Informatics, Program in Medical & Population Genetics, at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, where she was Co-Investigator on several large research grants, including the NHLBI CARe project, which provided a resource for meta analyses of phenotypic and genotypic information over eleven large cardiovascular cohorts, such as the Framingham Heart Study, Jackson Heart Study, and ARIC. She is a listed author on several highly cited genetics papers, and is first inventor on two broad software patents. Marcia has a master’s degree in computer science from Boston University, where she teaches Enterprise Architecture in the graduate computer science program. Her principal computer science interests are semantic representation and adaptive systems, two areas that are highly applicable to genomics.

Robert M. Palladino – Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Robert M. Palladino, MBA, Babson College, has extensive finance and operations experience within the healthcare industry. Before joining Claritas Genomics in 2015, Mr. Palladino held numerous roles in the medical field, including executive level positions at Bionevia, LLC, a discovery stage pharmaceutical company; CORRONA Holding, Inc, a medical data company in the development of observational registries of primarily autoimmune diseases that improve the R&D process and advance post regulatory approval market intelligence; PatientsLikeMe, Inc., a commercial business platform of community based data collection and sharing that can improve the lives of patients diagnosed with life-changing diseases; Microsulis Medical Limited, a commercial microwave ablation platform technology company in oncology and women’s healthcare; BioSphere Medical, Inc., a commercial polymer platform company for oncology and women’s healthcare; and Coretek, Inc., a fiber optics manufacturer for telecommunications and medical applications.

Board of Directors

Hannes Thor Smárason – Member of the Board of Directors, Interim CEO. Co-Founder of NextCODE Health
Hannes Thor Smárason is a prolific entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. Mr. Smárason co-founded NextCODE Health along with Dr. Jeff Gulcher. He has been a longtime advisor to deCODE and its venture investors Polaris Venture Partners and ARCH Venture Partners, and contributed to the strategy that culminated in the $415 million sale of deCODE to Amgen. Mr. Smárason previously served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of business and finance at the company (1997-2004) during which time deCODE achieved worldwide recognition as the global leader in analyzing and understanding the human genome. During his tenure Mr. Smárason led the first IPO by an Icelandic company in the U.S., structured and negotiated alliances with pharmaceutical companies, and led the strategic acquisition of a drug discovery company. Prior to joining deCODE he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company serving Fortune 100 clients in the finance, healthcare, and hospitality sectors. He also served as the chairman and CEO of Icelandair and its parent company FL Group in the mid- to late- 2000’s. Mr. Smárason has served on boards across a variety of sectors related to investment and advisory activity, and is active across a range of charitable organizations. He received his master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
David Margulies – Vice President of Strategy, Boston Children’s Hospital
David Margulies is a physician executive and entrepreneur currently serving as Vice President of Strategy at Boston Children’s Hospital. As Executive Director of the Gene Partnership at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Margulies was the driving force behind the creation of Claritas. In his 30 year career, Dr. Margulies founded or co-founded eight successful technology-based health system and health services companies and has served in senior executive or director roles for multiple public and private companies. He created the first clinical computing programs at both Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Boston Children Hospital, serving as BCH’s first Chief Information Officer. From BCH, Dr. Margulies went to Cerner Corporation as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, also serving as a Director of Cerner. He co-founded CareInsite, now WebMD, serving in Director and senior executive roles.  In 2000, Dr. Margulies co-founded the successful Correlagen Diagnostics, and was CEO and Chairman. LabCorp acquired Correlagen in 2011 to be its National Center of Excellence for DNA diagnostics.  Dr. Margulies was co-founder of Generation Health, subsequently acquired by CVS/Caremark. Currently, he is on the Board of Directors at the Commonwealth Health Alliance.  He is also Chairman of Q-State Biosciences, working on ex-vivo diagnostic systems for the study of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders with scientists from Harvard, MIT and BCH. Dr. Margulies is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Medical School, and board certified in Internal Medicine. He holds an appointment as Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and is a member of the faculties of Genetics, Developmental Medicine, and Informatics.
Philip Rotner – Chief Investment Officer, Boston Children’s Hospital
In May 2010, Philip Rotner joined Children’s Hospital Boston as its first Chief Investment Officer and established the organization’s investment office. He is responsible for overseeing the investment assets of the endowment and pension plan. Prior to joining Children’s Hospital Boston, he was a Managing Director in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Investment Management Company (MITIMCO). MITIMCO is responsible for the management of MIT’s investment assets. His role was evaluating and investing in private equity opportunities globally as well as for Asian public equity manager relationships for the MIT Endowment and the MIT Retirement Plan. He also represented MIT’s interests on numerous advisory/valuation boards. Mr. Rotner was also President of the MIT Private Equity Fund. The MIT Private Equity Fund invested alongside the MIT private equity program in new relationships. Prior to joining MIT in 1992, Mr. Rotner was previously employed as a Vice President in Bank of Boston’s Corporate Finance Department and as a Lending Officer with Bank of Tokyo Trust Company. He received a BA in Economics and Asian Studies from Amherst College and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Bob Higgins – Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School
Bob Higgins is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and a Founder and General Partner at Causeway Media Partners. Causeway is focused on backing young growth companies in sports media. Mr. Higgins is also Founding Partner at Highland Capital Partners.  He created and currently teaches a course at HBS called Entrepreneurship in Healthcare IT and Services (EHITS). In addition, he has served as a director of the National Venture Capital Association and as President of the New England Venture Capital Association. Earlier, he was the Executive Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation in New York, a private foundation that supports programs in medical research and health care management.  He managed two other New York foundations prior to the Hartford Foundation: the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Florence Vanderbilt Burden Foundation. Mr. Higgins served in Washington as the Assistant to the head of the International Division of the Treasury and as Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce.  Prior to going to Washington, he was on active duty in the Army as an officer at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Higgins is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He graduated from the Harvard Business School and Harvard College.
William Gish – Senior Director, Cerner Corporation
As Senior Director at Cerner Corporation, Bill Gish leads all business development activities at the company. He previously was Director of PowerWorks, Cerner’s Ambulatory business unit. Before his ten years with Cerner, Mr. Gish held multiple leadership positions in Finance, IT Project Development and Operations at Sprint. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Accounting and Finance) from Kansas State University.

Scientific Advisory Board

Louis M. Kunkel, PhD – Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Kunkel is an internationally recognized geneticist with years of experience and scientific success in the understanding of the basis for muscular dystrophies. He received a B.A. from Gettysburg College and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Over the past three decades Dr. Kunkel has devoted his career to understanding the molecular basis, and developing therapy, for neuromuscular disorders. Dr. Kunkel is universally recognized for the discovery of the genes responsible for muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular disorders. He has been involved in the identification of genes altered to cause muscular dystrophy since his 1986 identification of dystrophin as the causative gene in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  His current work centers on developing dystrophin independent therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy to complement existing therapies currently in development. A past Howard Hughes investigator and member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Kunkel received the 2009 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology for this pioneering work on muscular dystrophy. He leads a long-standing effort to develop novel therapies.Dr. Kunkel currently is a member of the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital; and Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston. He is also Director of the Sequencing/Genotyping, Expression Array and FACS Sorting Core Facilities at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Nina F. Schor, MD, PhD – Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester Medical Center
Dr. Nina F. Schor is the seventh Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and the William H. Eilinger Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is also Pediatrician-in-Chief of the Golisano Children’s Hospital at UR Medicine and Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology & Anatomy. Before arriving in Rochester, she was the Chief of the Division of Child Neurology in the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She was Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh and held the Carol Ann Craumer Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. A native of New York City, Dr. Schor received her BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, her MD from Cornell University, and her PhD from Rockefeller University. Her work at Rockefeller University resulted in awarding of a U.S. Patent and an IND from the FDA for development of a mucolytic agent for use in children with cystic fibrosis. She did her Pediatrics and Child Neurology residencies at Harvard University, Children’s Hospital of Boston, and the Longwood Area Neurology Program. Dr. Schor heads a research effort aimed at design and development of new strategies for treating tumors of the nervous system, including neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma and for understanding the developmental mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. She served as Associate Dean for Medical Student Research at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Schor’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, among other agencies, since 1988. Her grants include a Shannon Award, a FIRST Award, a Phase I SBIR Award, and an Individual Senior Fellowship, in addition to several R01 Awards and training grants at all levels at both the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Rochester. Dr. Schor was also the founding Director of the Headache Clinic Program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She continues to hold leadership positions in many national organizations, as well. Dr. Schor has been a Counselor of the Society for Pediatric Research, Counselor and Secretary-Treasurer of the Child Neurology Society, and President of Professors of Child Neurology. She is a member of the Executive Committees of the American Neurological Association (Executive Council Member, 2007-2009; Secretary, 2009-2013), the American Pediatric Society (Council Member, 2010-2015), and the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs (Executive Councilor, 2008-2011; Program Chair, 2011-2015) and a member of the Science Committee of the American Academy of Neurology (2009-2015), and serves on the Selection and Steering Committees of the Pediatric Scientist Development Program. Dr. Schor has served as an Editor of Swaiman’s Pediatric Neurology: Principles and Practice and Nelson’s Textbook of Pediatrics. She recently concluded her term as President of the Child Neurology Society. In July 2015, Dr. Schor was selected as a Director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Scott Pomeroy, MD, PhD – Neurologist-in-Chief, Boston Children’s Hospital
Education
B.A. Miami University, 1975
Ph.D. University of Cincinnati, 1980
M.D. University of Cincinnati, 1982
Internship
Intern in Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, 1982-1983
Residency
Resident in Neurology, Barnes Hospital, 1984-1985
Resident in Child Neurology, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, 1985-1987
Junior Assistant Resident in Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, 1983-1984
Fellowship
Postdoctoral Fellow of Dale Purves, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, 1987-1980
Scott L. Pomeroy is one of the world’s leading experts on pediatric brain cancer. His group was first to identify genetic markers that predict treatment response of medulloblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumor in children; he was among the first to apply genomic methods to studying childhood cancer. The results have been nothing short of revolutionary; brain tumors are now being classified by molecular features which define mechanisms of tumorigenesis and predict clinical outcome with much higher precision than clinical criteria. Through the Children’s Oncology Group, which unites 250 medical centers throughout North America, he leads an international effort to standardize tumor sample collection and to make genomic analysis a routine step in treatment planning for children with brain cancer.He has won numerous awards for his research and clinical care of children with embryonal brain tumors including the Sidney Carter Award and the Daniel Drake Medal, and he was the first recipient of the Compassionate Caregiver Award of the Kenneth Schwartz Center, which honors a Massachusetts caregiver who displays extraordinary compassion in caring for patients and their families.

Dr. Pomeroy graduated from Miami University and was the first graduate of the M.D., Ph.D. program of the University of Cincinnati. He trained in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and in Child Neurology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. In 1989, he won the Child Neurology Society Young Investigator Award for work done as a postdoctoral fellow with Dale Purves at Washington University. He currently is the Chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurologist-in-Chief of Boston Children’s Hospital, the Bronson Crothers Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and the Director of the Eunice K. Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development funded Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Tracy A. Glauser, MD – Associate Director, Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation

Director, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center
Co-Director, Genetic Pharmacology Service
Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Tracy A. Glauser, MD, is director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and co-director of the Genetic Pharmacology Service at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and professor of pediatrics in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Glauser received his medical degree, cum laude, from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and fellowship in child neurology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Glauser completed a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke research fellowship in pediatric neurology and was a fellow in epilepsy and electroencephalography at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dr. Glauser has authored and co-authored more than 130 articles and book chapters, been involved with the development of 6 evidence based guidelines about epilepsy therapy and given over 150 invited lectures throughout the world. He has been the principal investigator on multiple NIH grants. Currently, Dr. Glauser directs the NIH funded Childhood Absence Epilepsy clinical trial involving 32 pediatric centers around the United States. Dr. Glauser’s fields of expertise are pediatric neurology, pediatric epilepsy, clinical pharmacology and pharmacogenetics.

Albert Seymour, PhD – Chief Scientific Officer at Homology Medicines

Albert Seymour received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Delaware and MS degree in Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins University where he focused on the molecular genetics of cancer in the laboratory of Dr. Bert Vogelstein.  He then went on to receive his PhD and post-doctoral training in Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh under the direction of Dr. Michael Gorin where he studied the genetics of rare ophthalmic disease.

In 1997, Albert took a position at Pfizer in Groton, CT where he spent the next 14 years directing his team in the application of human genetics and computational biology to discover and develop novel therapeutics aimed at targeting diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and cancer.

In 2011, Albert moved to Shire in Lexington, MA as the Head of Drug Discovery and Translational Research where, in three years, he doubled the rare disease Discovery portfolio.   In 2014, Albert assumed the role as the Global Head of Research and Nonclinical Development.  In this role, he leads a team of scientists who are responsible for delivering a sustained portfolio of rare disease focused therapeutic projects from idea to IND.  In addition his team supports Shire’s R&D portfolio across all therapeutic areas with bioanalytics, toxicology, and DMPK.

Clinical Team

Bai-Lin Wu, PhD, FACMG – Co-Founder and Medical Director

Dr. Wu brings more than 30 years of experience in molecular diagnostics to Claritas Genomics, creating Boston Children’s Molecular Diagnostic lab nearly 20 years ago as the sole staff member. Dr. Wu and his team designed a 60-mer oligo DNA chip for high-resolution genomic DNA copy number variant analysis. The test was used to detect sub-microscopic genomic deletions and duplications associated with developmental delay, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorders and was one of first U.S. CLIA certified labs to use this advanced technique. The lab’s work provided the groundwork for the American College of Medical Genetics to issue clinical guidelines in 2010 for the use of chromosomal microarray analysis in the primary evaluation of developmental delay. The outgrowth of this work allowed development of a rapid and cost-effective assay for copy number variation at 16p11.2 resulting in U.S. patent #8,003,326. Since 2010, Dr. Wu and his team have worked closely with physician experts at Boston Children’s on research and development of Next Generation Sequencing. Dr. Wu is active in training postdoctoral fellows, medical students, and residents through the Harvard Medical School Clinical Genetics Training Program and Molecular Pathologist Training Program. He also is on the Faculty at Fudan University in Shanghai and is active in building high quality molecular diagnostic and academic programs in China. Dr. Wu is credited on more than 100 publications by his research team and collaborations. Dr. Wu received the Master of Medicine in Medical Genetics at Shanghai Medical University, China before immigrating to the US. He completed his clinical genetics fellowship training in the Harvard Genetics Training Program. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics and Assistant Professor in Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Mark Kellogg, PhD – Laboratory Director

Dr. Kellogg is currently the Director of Quality Programs and Associate Director of Chemistry, Dept. of Laboratory Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, in Boston Massachusetts. His research focuses on adaptation of mass spectrometry to clinical assays and biomarkers of cognitive function. He has over 50 publications. From January 1999 until August of 2007, Dr. Kellogg was a research biochemist on active duty in the US Army. His first assignment was in the Nutrition Division of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick Massachusetts. Here he worked primarily with nutritional modulation of physical and cognitive performance and the clinical chemistry associated with monitoring performance. Through the Army’s Long Term Higher Education and Training program, Dr. Kellogg completed his post-doctoral training in Clinical Chemistry at Boston Children’s Hospital. His final assignment with the Army was at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he served as the Field Team Leader for the Institutes Diagnostic Systems Division. In addition he was the assistant director for the National Laboratory at USAMRIID, supporting the nation’s Bioterrorism Laboratory Response Network. Prior to his active duty tour, Dr. Kellogg was an Associate Professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids Michigan, teaching clinical chemistry, phlebotomy and quality courses in the medical technology and medical laboratory technician programs. He received his doctorate in biology from the University of Notre Dame in 1996 where he studied the adaptation of fish to environments of differing salinity. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology from Michigan Technological University. Dr. Kellogg is active in the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), currently serving as Secretary for the Northeast section, is on the executive board for the Nutrition Division and on the board of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry.

David Miller, MD, PhD, FACMG – Medical Director

David Miller is a medical geneticist and one of our Medical Directors at Claritas Genomics. He is also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Miller’s experience as a clinician who orders genetic tests and provides results directly to patients, combined with expertise in developing and performing clinical laboratory diagnostic assays, provides him with a unique and valuable perspective. Dr. Miller lends his considerable clinical experience to clinical interpretation and reporting of Claritas’ genetic testing. He has published numerous articles on the topic of clinical genetic testing, including diagnostic yield and clinical utility. He received his MD and PhD degrees from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, completed a residency in Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and residency/fellowship in medical genetics and clinical molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School. He is board-certified in Clinical Genetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics.

Yiping Shen, PhD FACMG – Medical Director

Yiping Shen is an ABMG-board certified medical director at Claritas. He has over 20 years’ experience in human genetic research and over 10 years’ experience in clinical molecular testing service. He also directed the R&D activity at the Genetic Diagnostic Laboratory (GDL) at Boston Children’s Hospital and developed and updated many tests including MLPA based targeted copy number tests, the microarray-based whole genome CNV+SNP test, as well as Sanger- and Next Generation Sequencing-based tests. He co-directs the R&D group at Claritas. He has published numerous articles on the discovery of novel disease genes and contributed to a better understanding of genotype-phenotype correlations that are the basis for clinical interpretation and counseling. His research interests in understanding the genetic causes of pediatric genetic disorders, particularly developmental disorders, provide unique value for the genetic diagnostic testing service for the pediatric patient population at Claritas. Dr. Shen is a reviewer for more than twenty academic journals and had been invited for countless talks nationally and internationally. He also provides training for research and clinical fellows and teaches for the Harvard Genetic Training Program from which he was initially trained. He is an assistant professor at the Pathology Department at Harvard Medical School. He is also on the Faculty at Jiaotong University in Shanghai. Dr. Shen received the Master of Science in Developmental Biology at Wuhan University, China. He received his PhD in Pharmacology from Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York. He did his clinical genetics fellowship training in the Harvard Medical School Genetics Training Program. He is board-certified in Clinical Molecular Genetics. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Medical Genetics, a fellow of American College of Medical Genetics and a leadership committee member of Chinese Medical Doctor Association.

Seyed Ali Hosseini, MD PhD – Assistant Laboratory Director

Dr. Hosseini joined Claritas Genomics and Boston Children’s Hospital Department of laboratory Medicine/ Harvard Medical School in 2015 as an Assistant Laboratory Director after completing his ABMG fellowship in clinical molecular genetics at University of Miami/Harvard Medical School Genetics Training Program. He received his MD from Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Iran and his PhD from Panjab University, India. He finished his postdoctoral research fellowship at Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Hosseini’s research interests including cancer genetics, epigenetics and adoption of genomic technologies with advanced clinical interpretation for their effective use in personalized medicine.

From Sept. 2009-Oct. 2011, Dr. Hosseini was Assistant Professor at National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Department of Medical Genetics, Tehran, Iran. Hosseini has more than 20 publications and had main authorship of nine out of 30 chapters of the 2013 publication “Handbook on Medical Genetics and Genetic Counseling”.

Natalie Vena, MS, LCGC – Laboratory Genetic Counselor

Natalie Vena joined Claritas Genomics in 2014 as a Laboratory Genetic Counselor. She is responsible for variant interpretation for Claritas’ Next Generation Sequencing tests, including the Claritas Clinical Exome and the Region of Interest tests. She is also a key member of the Product Development team. Ms. Vena joined Claritas from Emory Genetics Laboratory where she assisted with variant analysis and reporting for the molecular genetics and cytogenetics laboratories. Before that, she served as a Clinical Research Assistant at the Center for Cancer Risk Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Ms. Vena was awarded her Masters of Science in Genetic Counseling from Boston University in 2012 where her Capstone focused on Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility Type. She obtained her Certification from the American Board of Genetic Counseling in 2012.

Ann Seman, MS, LCGC – Laboratory Genetic Counselor

Ms. Seman is a board-certified Genetic Counselor at Claritas Genomics with over 10 years of clinical genetic counseling experience. She holds a Masters in Medical Genetics from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Ann began her genetic counseling career by working at the Eastern Maine Medical Center where she provided genetic counseling services for general genetics, pediatric, prenatal, and preconception clinics as well as the multidisciplinary clinics including Metabolic, Muscular Dystrophy, Cleft Lip and Palate, and Hemophilia. Ann joined the DNA Diagnostic Laboratory in Boston Children’s Hospital in 2007 as a Laboratory Genetic Counselor. She split her time between this role and a Clinical Genetic Counselor position in the general pediatric clinic at Boston Children’s. Ann is an original Claritas Genomics team member, having made the move when the DNA Diagnostic Laboratory became Claritas Genomics in 2013. Ann continues in her clinical Genetic Counseling role at Boston Children’s Hospital in addition to her Laboratory Genetic Counselor role with Claritas Genomics.