Stephanie Felker received her Ph.D. from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2023. She is working in the lab of Dr. Greg Barsh at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Her research aims to characterize ancestry-specific contributors of genetic disease to improve equity in precision medicine. Specifically, she aims to isolate ancestry-specific polymorphisms arisen from the diversity of recent human evolution in the context of disease and disease risk. Additionally, she aims to reassess the penetrance of variants associated with rare disease in large-scale genomic cohorts.

Jeremie Lever is a general surgery resident and surgeon scientist trainee at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he also earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in the Medical Scientist Training Program. He is performing a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Karin Hardiman studying the role of intratumoral clonal heterogeneity and how this contributes to neoadjuvant treatment resistance, invasion, and metastasis. This is clinically relevant because certain subclones may be responsible for resistance, patients who demonstrate treatment resistance and eventual metastasis have much worse outcomes, and these patients represent a subpopulation at high risk for mortality. In order to address this need, Jeremie is investigating clonality in organoid models of human rectal cancer using single cell RNA sequencing. He will further associate which subclones are responsible for resistance, the means by which this resistance may be shared, and identify candidate target genes for development of therapeutics. Jeremie plans to hold a career in academic colorectal surgery to see patients and lead an independent research program on mechanisms of disease in colon and rectal cancer.

Kevin J. Rodriguez-Cruz earned his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo and later completed his B.S. in Pharmacy Studies and Pharm.D. at Samford University McWhorter School of Pharmacy. During his pharmacy studies, he focused on cystic fibrosis research, specifically investigating how Lumacaftor affects the function of the F508del cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator. Currently, as a T32 post-doctoral fellow in translational pharmacogenomics under Dr. Limdi, Kevin is engaged in multiple projects, including the Phase IV eMERGE study, where he evaluates genomic risk scores for breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. He also co-leads a project on CYP2C19-guided antiplatelet therapy in ischemic stroke, conducting both retrospective and prospective studies to understand the role of genetic variation in treatment outcomes. Kevin's research aims to advance personalized medicine by integrating genomic data into clinical practice.