Speaker Profile
Ph.D., Director, Million Veteran Program; Office of Research & Development, Department of Veterans Affairs
Biography
Dr. Sumitra Muralidhar is the Program Director for VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP) in the Office of Research and Development (ORD). She oversees the policy and infrastructure development for the collection and use of samples and genetic, clinical, lifestyle and military exposure data from one million Veterans. She served as ORD’s liaison to the White House Precision Medicine Initiative under President Obama, and continues to represent ORD/MVP in the federal interagency group on precision medicine. She also serves as the designated federal officer for VA’s Genomic Medicine Program Advisory Committee, which advises the VA Secretary on the development and implementation of research and clinical arms within the Veterans Health Administration. She previously served as Health and Science Advisor to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (SVAC), and Associate Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Maryland.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2018 Silicon Valley
Session Synopsis: The scope of precision medicine demands expertise and resources represented in multiple sectors and agencies, and therefore new types of partnerships. Representatives from industry, academia and federal agencies will consider the challenges and opportunities of such collaborations in this panel, drawing on two specific demonstration cases, both of which require high performance computing: the ATOM Program, a revolutionary approach to cancer drug discovery; and the VA Million Veterans Program, utilizing patient medical records to enhance health research.
