Principal Investigators
Robert Califf, MD
Director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute
M.U.R.D.O.C.K. Study Principal Investigator
Donald F. Fortin, MD Professor of Cardiology, School of Medicine
Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Califf was born in Anderson, South Carolina, in 1951 and attended high school in Columbia, SC, where he was a member of the 1969 AAAA South Carolina Championship basketball team.
He graduated from Duke University, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in 1973 and from Duke University Medical School in 1978, where he was selected for Alpha Omega Alpha. He performed his internship and residency at the University of California at San Francisco and his fellowship in cardiology at Duke University. He is board certified in internal medicine (1984) and cardiology (1986) and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (1988).
He is currently Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research, Director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute (DTMI) and professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. For 10 years he was Director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), the largest academic research organization in the world. He is the editor-in-chief of Elsevier’s American Heart Journal, the oldest cardiovascular specialty journal. He has been an author or coauthor of more than 650 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a contributing editor for www.theheart.org, an online information resource for academic and practicing cardiologists.
Dr. Califf led the DCRI during many of the best-known clinical trials in cardiovascular disease. With an annual budget over $100 million, the DCRI has more than 800 employees and collaborates extensively with government agencies, the medical-products industry and academic partners around the globe. In cooperation with his colleagues from the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease, Dr. Califf has written extensively about the clinical and economic outcomes of chronic heart disease. He is considered an international leader in the fields of health outcomes, quality of care and medical economics.
Dr. Califf has served on the Cardiorenal Advisory Panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Pharmaceutical Roundtable of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). He served on the IOM committees that recommended Medicare coverage of clinical trials and banned Ephedra, and he is currently serving on the IOM’s Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors as well as its Forum in Drug Discovery, Development and Translation. He is the director of the coordinating center for the Centers for Education & Research on Therapeutics (CERTs), a public/private partnership among the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the FDA, academia, the medical-products industry, and consumer groups. This partnership focuses on research and education that will advance the best use of medical products.
Dr. Califf has been married to Lydia Carpenter since 1974, and they have three children—Sharon Califf Boozer, a graduate of Elon College; Sam, a graduate student at the University of Colorado-Boulder; and Tom, a recent graduate of Duke University—and one grandchild. Dr. Califf enjoys golf, basketball, and listening to music.
Geoffrey Ginsburg, MD, PhD
M.U.R.D.O.C.K. Study Co-Investigator
Duke Translational Medicine Institute DTMI Biorepository & '-omics' Cores
Director, Center for Genomic Medicine
Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy
Professor of Medicine and Pathology
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, MD, PhD is the founding Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy. He is also Professor of Medicine and of Pathology at Duke University Medical Center.
Dr. Ginsburg received his MD and PhD in biophysics from Boston University. He completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Subsequently, he pursued postdoctoral training in clinical cardiovascular medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and in molecular biology at Children’s Hospital as a Bugher Foundation Fellow of the American Heart Association. In 1990 he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School where he was Director of Preventive Cardiology and led a laboratory in applied genetics of cardiovascular disease. In 1997 he joined Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as Senior Program Director for Cardiovascular Diseases. In 2000, he was appointed Vice President of Molecular and Personalized Medicine at Millennium, where he was responsible for developing pharmacogenomic strategies for therapeutics, as well as biomarkers for disease and their implementation in the drug development process. He assumed his current position in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy in September 2004, and, in 2006, he was also appointed as Co-Director, Duke Translational Medicine Institute.
Dr. Ginsburg has received a number of awards for his research accomplishments, including the Innovator in Medicine Award from Millennium in 2004 and the Basic Research Achievement Award in Cardiovascular Medicine from Duke in 2005. He is a founding member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, an Associate Editor for The Journal of the American College of Cardiology and an Associate Editor for Genomic Medicine. He has been an international expert panel member for Genome Canada and is currently a member of the Board of External Experts for the NHLBI, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Advisory Council on Genomic Medicine, and the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Genome Based Research to Human Health. Recently, he was appointed to the Food and Drug Administration’s Clinical Pharmacology Advisory Council.
His research interests are in the development of novel paradigms for developing and translating genomic information into medical practice and the integration of personalized medicine into health care.
John McHutchison, MD
M.U.R.D.O.C.K. Study Co-Investigator
Duke Translational Medicine Institute
Co-director, Duke Clinical Research Unit (DCRU)
Associate Director, Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI)
Director, DCRI Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research
Dr. McHutchison, a professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, joined the DCRI in 2002 as the director of the DCRI’s Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research Division. Dr. McHutchison is a distinguished gastrointestinal and liver disease researcher, having conducted more than 100 clinical studies as a principal investigator, and authoring more than 150 papers on hepatitis and related topics in peer-reviewed journals. He previously served as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Southern California and medical director for liver transplantation at Scripps Clinic after leaving his native Australia.
He sits on many advisory committees where he provides independent and academic reviews of clinical studies and development plans. He also participates on a variety of committees and editorial boards, including those of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the University of Melbourne Medical School, the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom, and the journals Hepatology, Hepatology Reviews, Nature, Gastroenterology, and the Journal of Hepatology (for which he also serves as an Associate Editor). He currently chairs the American Association of the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) clinical research committee and is a member of the AASLD nominating committee.
Dr. McHutchison’s clinical and research interests relate to chronic viral hepatitis B and C, ascites, noninvasive fibrosis markers, steatosis and the immunopathogenesis of these diseases. He received his MD from Melbourne University in Victoria, Australia and completed his residency in internal medicine at Royal Melbourne Hospital also in Victoria. He did fellowships in gastroenterology at Royal Melbourne Hospital and in hepatology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Cecil Charles, PhD
Duke Translational Medicine Institute Imaging Core
Associate Professor of Radiology
Director, Duke Image Analysis Laboratory (DIAL)
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Charles is a chemist and an expert in MR imaging and spectroscopy with more than 20 years of experience in nuclear magnetic resonance. He serves as the co-director of the Duke Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Development.
Dr. Charles has extensive experience in conducting brain imaging and spectroscopy studies, serving as the director of the Neuroimaging Core for the University of North Carolina (UNC) Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the Study of Neuroscience of Mental and Behavioral Disorders. He has had extensive experience in conducting longitudinal clinical trials with MRI and MRS as biomarkers. He is part of the first NIH-sponsored clinical trial of MR in vivo spectroscopy.
He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Victoria Christian
Duke Translational Research Institute (DTRI)
Chief Operating Officer
As COO of the DTRI, Ms Christian works with Bruce Sullenger, DTRI director, to oversee the operations and strategic direction of DTRI as an institutional resource for translational researchers. In addition to leading the development of the DTRI technology cores and administering the pilot project program, she serves as the executive manager of the M.U.R.D.O.C.K. Study and liaison for interactions with the David H. Murdock Research Institute Core Laboratory, and as the executive liaison of the DTRI venture fund.
Ms Christian’s background includes a broad range of experience in clinical and translational research in both industry and academia. She began her career in healthcare at New York Hospital in 1975 as a pediatric recreational therapist. In 1990, she joined the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease (the precursor to the DCRI) and worked with Dr. Kerry Lee on a series of clinical trials in electrophysiology.
Ms Christian has held senior level positions at PAREXEL International (a global clinical research organization) and King Pharmaceuticals, and she co-founded NITROX LLC, a Duke spin-off company. In January 2007, she was recruited back to Duke to assist with the start-up of DTRI and the Clinical and Translational Science Award grant. Her efforts have focused on the DTRI technology cores, including a variety of strategic initiatives and the recruitment of a talented and energetic team of project leaders. Ms Christian also played an instrumental leadership role in the conceptualization and design of the M.U.R.D.O.C.K. Study, which is funded by a $35 million grant from David H. Murdock and conducted with the North Carolina Research Campus.
Virginia Byers Kraus, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pathology
Assistant Professor in Surgery
Duke University School of Medicine
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Kraus is a physician scientist and Associate Professor with tenure in the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Her clinical interests include the diagnosis, treatment and study of hereditary forms of osteoarthritis, exercise rehabilitation for arthritis, and clinical trials for new osteoarthritis therapeutics. She is chairperson on the National Institutes of Health-funded Osteoarthritis Biomarkers Network and is well published with a number of studies to her credit.
Dr. Kraus received her MD, completed a residency in medicine, and was awarded a fellowship in rheumatology — all at Duke University School of Medicine and Medical Center. Dr. Kraus’ PhD training at Duke University, related to molecular biology, was in the field of eukaryotic transcription control with Dr. Joseph R. Nevins at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her postdoctoral work with Dr. Bruce Caterson at the University of North Carolina was in the field of cartilage extracellular matrix biology and biochemistry.
Since 1995, Dr. Kraus has supervised a laboratory devoted to experimental medicine research to understand the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis and to develop novel tools to aid diagnosis, prognosis and effective intervention of this disease. Her special interest is in biomarkers of osteoarthritis for human and pre-clinical disease investigations and their application to basic science, genetics and clinical trials.
In a book co-authored by Dr. Kraus, The Everyday Arthritis Solution, the authors recommended several self-help strategies for individuals suffering from OA. Of numerous recommendations, the authors identified selenium, found in a multivitamin, as a beneficial supplement.
Jeanette McCarthy, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Community and Family Medicine
Associate Research Professor
Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. McCarthy is an associate professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine and an associate research professor for the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP). She joined the IGSP’s Centers for Genomic Medicine and Population Genomics & Pharmacogenetics in 2007.
She received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993, under the mentorship of Mary-Claire King. Following, Dr. McCarthy spent six years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Millennium Predictive Medicine, helping to develop their strategy for pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine. She then received her first academic appointment in epidemiology in the School of Public Health at San Diego State University in 2001.
Dr. McCarthy's research involves using genomic and epidemiological methods to study complex human traits and the modifying effect that the environment has on genetic variation. She currently conducts research on the genetic epidemiology of metabolic syndrome and diabetes among Latinos and the pharmacogenetics of women's lipid response to estrogen therapy.
Dr. McCarthy is a Fulbright award recipient and has spent time conducting research and lecturing in Spain, Switzerland and Italy. She is on the editorial boards of PharmacoGenomics and Medical Diagnosis and Therapy, and a scientific reviewer for Genome Canada.
Art Moseley, PhD
Duke Translational Research Institute
Director of Duke Proteomics Core Facility
Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Moseley is director of the Duke Proteomics Core Facility where he is responsible for developing mass spectrometry-based proteomic technologies for preclinical and clinical projects.
Dr. Moseley received his doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and his masters in physical chemistry from North Carolina State University. With nearly 30 years of experience in research and scientific leadership, Dr. Moseley has led transnational forums and successfully delivered proteomics project portfolios, managed a transnational team and has overseen the acquisition and management of a large-scale mass spectrometry proteomics infrastructure.
Since 1997, Dr. Moseley has been a co-instructor of a two-day course at the National Conference of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. He was a member of the Washington University Mass Spectrometry Resource Advisory Review Committee and is also a member of the American Chemical Society and the Triangle Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group. He has written more than 40 peer-reviewed papers.
L. Kristin Newby, MD, MHS
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology
Director, Chest Pain Unit
Associate Director, Cardiac Care Unit
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Newby is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and also serves as Co-Director of the Cardiac Care Unit at the Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Newby received her MD from the Indiana University School of Medicine and completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at DUMC.
Dr. Newby’s general research interests include risk stratification and treatment of patients with acute and chronic coronary artery disease and systems issues for delivery of care to patients with these illnesses. She has led the Duke Clinical Research Institute’s coordinating center for several randomized clinical trials of new therapies and treatment strategies for acute coronary syndromes. She also has been the principal investigator of multiple studies assessing the use of novel protein biomarkers to enhance risk stratification and guide treatment selection in cardiovascular disease, and she is pursuing interests in the application of genomics for this purpose.
Dr. Newby was co-investigator in the GeneQuest study of genetic associations with risk for early onset coronary disease, and she is a co-investigator in several ongoing projects exploring the use of RNA expression profiling, proteomics and metabolomics for risk stratification for coronary events. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Duke CATHGEN biorepository collecting DNA, RNA and plasma from patients undergoing cardiac catheterization at Duke Hospital for use in ongoing and future genomic studies in cardiovascular disease.
Christopher B. Newgard, PhD
DTRI '-omics' Core
Duke Translational Research Institute
Director, Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center
W. David and Sarah W. Stedman Distinguished Professor
Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
Professor of Medicine
Departments of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Biochemistry, and Medicine
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Newgard is director of the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center, the W. David and Sarah W. Stedman Distinguished Professor, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, and professor of Medicine in the departments of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Biochemistry, and Medicine.
Prior to coming to Duke in 2002, Dr. Newgard was the Gifford O. Touchstone Jr. and Randolph G. Touchstone Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and the co-director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Dr. Newgard's research focuses on application of an interdisciplinary approach for understanding of diabetes and obesity mechanisms involving gene discovery, metabolic engineering, and comprehensive tools of metabolic analysis (metabolomics). He earned his BS at Duke University, his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and performed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco.
Svati H. Shah, MD, MHS
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Cardiology
Department of Medicine
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Shah is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Duke University Medical Center and Associate Director of the Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program.
Dr. Shah has a research focus in genetic epidemiology which began after she completed a Master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health prior to completing medical school at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She subsequently finished Internal Medicine Residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard University and came to Duke University where she completed clinical cardiovascular fellowship training, as well as a research fellowship in genetic epidemiology at the Duke Center for Human Genetics. Concomitantly, she received a Master’s degree in Medical Genomics.
Dr. Shah’s research focuses on the genetic epidemiology of coronary artery disease and in particular, early-onset coronary artery disease. She has received several grants for this research, including an American Heart Association Career Development Award. She is a co-investigator on several cardiovascular genomics projects, including work on the AGENDA project identifying novel genes for atherosclerosis; the CATHGEN cardiac catheterization biorepository; the GENECARD study of familial early-onset coronary artery disease; and the M.U.R.D.O.C.K. Study Horizon 1 acute coronary events and the obesity projects.
Laura Svetkey, MD
Director of Clinical Research
Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center
Director, Duke Hypertension Center
Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Svetkey is the director of clinical research at the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center. In this role, she brings a wealth of experience to the Stedman Center as she is also the director of the Duke Hypertension Center and has more than 20 years of experience in clinical research. She has been principal investigator on four NIH-sponsored multicenter studies on nutritional approaches to controlling hypertension and other obesity-related cardiovascular risk factors, including the landmark DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) clinical trial. Currently she is principal investigator on the NIH-sponsored Weight Loss Maintenance Study and is trial-wide chair of this multicenter study of behavioral approaches to long-term weight control. Together, with Dr. Christopher Newgard, Dr. Svetkey has developed and leads the STEDMAN (STudy of the Effects of Diet on Metabolism And Nutrition) Project, the flagship obesity clinical study of the Stedman Center.
Dr. Svetkey received her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed residencies in internal medicine at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center in New York and general internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center. She also holds an MHS in biometry from Duke University.
Jessica Tenenbaum, PhD
Project Leader, Biomedical Informatics Core
Duke Translational Research Institute
Durham, North Carolina
Dr. Tenenbaum is project leader for the Biomedical Informatics Core at the Duke Translational Research Institute. She plays an integral role in facilitating the Duke Translational Research Institute’s Biorepository, the "-omics" Core and the landmark M.U.R.D.O.C.K. Study.
Dr. Tenenbaum recently completed her PhD in biomedical informatics at Stanford University. After earning her BS in biology from Harvard University (with effectively a minor in computer science), Dr. Tenenbaum was hired by Microsoft Corporation, where she worked for six years. She first worked on the website product Sidewalk.com (later bought by Citysearch), and subsequently on Smartphone devices in the Windows Mobile Division. She also taught evening courses in computer programming through the University of Washington Extension School.
In 2002, Jessie returned to academia full time to pursue a PhD in biomedical informatics. Her doctoral research focused on integration and analysis of disparate “-omic” scale datasets, and on mining publicly available data for insights into human disease. Other research interests include proteomics, regulatory and signaling networks, and systems biology.
In early 2006, Jessie was a Christine Mirzayan Graduate Fellow in Science and Technology Policy at the National Academies in Washington, DC. In this role, she worked with Dr. J. Michael McGinnis in the Institute of Medicine to help organize a Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine. She also assisted in early planning stages for a workshop on health information technology.