The National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) has appointed Dr. Deanne Taylor, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors. Dr. Taylor is the Scientific Director at the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Elected in May to a three-year term, Dr. Taylor brings years of experience and insight to the nation’s leading source of human organs and tissue for research.

“It is a privilege to welcome Dr. Taylor as a member of the NDRI Board of Directors,” says Bill Leinweber, President and CEO of NDRI. “Her expertise in bioinformatics offers great value to NDRI as we support landmark research initiatives that involve the collection, processing, and analysis of vast amounts of biological data. Dr. Taylor and her colleagues are collaborators with NDRI on the NIH-supported Developmental Genotype-Tissue Expression (dGTEx) initiative. We look forward to working with Dr. Taylor to further advance opportunities for the application of knowledge derived through bioinformatics to contribute to drug discovery, personalized medicine, and gene therapy.”

Dr. Taylor earned her B.A. in Physics and Astronomy from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan before completing post-doctoral training at Pfizer R&D in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has over 20 years of experience in biophysics, computational biology, and bioinformatics and has been cited in over 100 publications.

“I am delighted to join NDRI’s Board of Directors and look forward to advancing NDRI’s mission,” says Dr. Taylor. “I have had the honor of collaborating with NDRI on dGTEx and look forward to bringing that perspective to the organization’s Board.”

Dr. Taylor’s research at CHOP focuses on integration of complex multimodal data from large genomics datasets. She is one of the principal investigators on the Kids First Data Resource Center, the Molecular Targets Project, and an early proponent of the Pediatric Cell Atlas.

Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix, Ph.D., Chair of the NDRI Board and President of Shepherd University, shared, “We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Taylor to the NDRI Board of Directors. Her breadth of knowledge and expertise in pediatric research will enhance our mission and benefit children and their families through scientific discovery.”

About NDRI

The National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) is the nation’s leading source of human tissues, cells and organs for scientific research. A not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization founded in 1980, NDRI is funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, public and private foundations and organizations, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations. NDRI is a 24/7 operation that partners with a nationwide network of over 130 tissue source sites (TSS), including organ procurement organizations (OPOs), tissue banks, eye banks, and hospitals. The TSS, are distributed throughout the USA, in 45 states, with concentrations in major metropolitan areas on both the east and west coasts. Their wide geographic distribution allows NDRI to provide biospecimens from donor populations with diverse demographics and facilitates the timely and efficient provision of fresh tissues directly to researchers across the U.S. and around the world. By serving as the liaison between procurement sources and the research community, NDRI is uniquely positioned to support breakthrough advances and discoveries that can affect advances in the treatment and cure of human diseases.  

Media Inquiries:  

Matthew Reece

Director, Marketing and Communications

215-557-7361, ext. 239

Mreece@ndriresource.org

www.ndriresource.org