News — The Coriell Institute for Medical Research today announced it is expanding its leadership team by welcoming two skilled scientists to fill two new roles. Jaroslav Jelinek, M.D., Ph.D., will serve as the Institute’s new Chief Research Officer and Jozef Madzo, Ph.D., will join the Institute as its new Director of Bioinformatics. Both are scheduled to start on Feb. 28.
Drs. Jelinek and Madzo are joining the Coriell Institute from Temple University’s Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology and Lewis Katz School of Medicine where they worked closely with Jean-Pierre Issa, M.D., the Fels Institute’s current director and the incoming president and C.E.O. of the Coriell Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Issa, a famed epigeneticist, is taking over as Coriell’s chief executive after a year-long search following the death of Coriell’s previous President and C.E.O., Dr. Michael F. Christman.
Previously a research professor at Temple University, Dr. Jelinek has worked for decades to better understand the underlying biology of blood cancers and has focused on the epigenetics in a variety of cancers. He developed novel methods to measure DNA methylation and has contributed to the characterization of new drug combinations used to treat cancer. Prior to his work at Temple University, Dr. Jelinek served on the faculty of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as a visiting scientist, instructor and an assistant professor in the Department of Leukemia.
“I’m honored to join the Coriell team and look forward to working alongside its highly regarded scientists,” Dr. Jelinek said. “The Coriell Institute helped to blaze the trail on personalized medicine research and I’m eager to see what we can do together.”
Over the course of his career, Dr. Jelinek has published more 120 peer-reviewed articles, more than 80 in the field of epigenetics. He earned both his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy in Physiology degrees at the Charles University School of Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic.
Dr. Madzo led the bioinformatics core at the Fels Institute for Cancer and Molecular Biology and as such designed various projects involving the mapping and analysis of various genetic and epigenetic data using statistical methods and machine learning techniques. He has participated in multiple studies investigating DNA methylation drift during aging, in injury-related inflammation, and neoplastic transformation. His team found that cells show changes in DNA methylation during aging and later that diet and calorie restriction can slow down age or inflammation related methylation drift.
“The Coriell Institute understands the important role of data and bioinformatics in genetics and epigenetics,” Dr. Madzo said. “I’m excited to contribute to that effort.”
Prior to his roles at Temple, Dr. Madzo served as a research associate at the University of Chicago Medical Center in the department of Medicine. Dr. Madzo earned his Doctor of Philosophy with a focus on Biomedicine from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and later earned his Master of Science in Bioinformatics from Temple University.
About the Coriell Institute for Medical Research
The Coriell Institute is a global leader in understanding how our personal genomes affect our health. Coriell is recognized as one of the world's leading biobanks, distributing biological samples and offering research and biobanking services to scientists in 85 countries around the globe. Coriell is the trusted steward of world-renowned collections for the National Institutes of Health, disease foundations and commercial clients. Coriell established its reputation as a leader in personalized medicine through the creation of the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative, a research study which investigated the clinical utility of genomic information. Scientists at Coriell are now leveraging their expertise in genomics to develop new tools to prevent and treat opioid use disorder. The Institute is also unlocking the promise of induced pluripotent stem cells and their role in disease research and drug discovery. For more information, visit www.coriell.org, like Coriell on Facebook or follow @Coriell_Science on Twitter.
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