Affiliate Membership Program

The Genome Center Cancer Group (GCCG), led by Harold Varmus, MD, NYGC and Weill Cornell Medicine, and Charles Sawyers, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is composed of clinicians and cancer researchers from NYGC’s member institutions, including 7 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. In 2017, the GCCG launched Polyethnic-1000, a project to study cancer in New York’s ethnically diverse, underserved patient populations.

The NYGC is leveraging the success of the Center for Genomics of Neurodegenerative Disease (CGND) to extend our work across a range of neurodegenerative diseases that have pathways in common with ALS, including dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. Co-led by Thomas Lehner, Ph.D., MPH, NYGC, and Hemali Phatnani, Ph.D., NYGC and Columbia University, the Neurodegenerative Disease Working Group brings together researchers from our Institutional Founding Members, NYGC faculty and senior faculty, NYGC technology development and computational scientists, and affiliate members to build partnerships and programs to better understand the biological underpinnings and molecular mechanisms driving neurodegenerative disease.

The Neuropsychiatric Disease Working Group (NPDWG), led by Thomas Lehner, PhD, MPH, brings together researchers from our Institutional Founding Members, NYGC faculty, NYGC technology development and computational scientists, and affiliate members. The NPDWG aims to develop innovative strategies for investigating the genetic and phenotypic architecture of neuropsychiatric disorders, using functional genomic approaches to unravel their underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms, and engaging in translational studies focused on advancing our understanding of the biological underpinnings of these disorders, with a focus on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. In addition, the group is collaborating on an initiative to develop a patient-centric platform for precision psychiatry dedicated to providing patients with access to evidence-based mental healthcare and the integration of genetic and other biomarkers into prognosis, diagnosis, and clinical care.

The Population Genomics and Statistical Genetics Working Group is led by David Knowles, PhD, NYGC. This group brings together scientists to discuss the development and investigation into the human population genomic data that underpins and informs all disease-focused research. The group’s interest spans a number of research areas, including long-read sequencing, social health science, ancestry-based genomics, as well as genome-wide computational approaches that allow us to interpret human genome and transcriptome data.