Duke Cancer Institute member Geoffrey Ginsburg, MD, PhD, a professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Pathology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Engineering, and a professor in School of Nursing, will leave Duke to assume the role of Chief Medical and Scientific Officer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us Research Program, effective January 2022.
In this role, Ginsburg will help direct the national scientific research agenda to improve health and accelerate research using precision medicine.
Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine Mary E. Klotman and Kathleen Cooney, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine, made the announcement in an email to faculty and staff this morning.
"Dr. Ginsburg has been a visionary leader for Duke University and the School of Medicine for 17 years. He is the founding director of the Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine (CAGPM) and also founding director of MEDx, a partnership between Duke’s Schools of Medicine and Engineering, which is designed to stimulate collaboration and innovation," read the announcement. "During his tenure at Duke, Dr. Ginsburg has pioneered translational genomics, the development of novel diagnostics, and precision medicine. With a strong commitment to interdisciplinary science and innovation, he has led projects to develop predictive models for common complex diseases using high dimensional genomic data and developed partnerships with engineering colleagues to develop novel point of care sensors."
Ginsburg will step down from both directorship roles as he leaves Duke. He will remain on faculty at Duke University as an adjunct professor in the School of Medicine. Cooney will serve as interim director of the Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine. Dean Klotman, Provost Sally Kornbluth, and Jerome Lynch, who was recently named dean of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, will work together to plan the future direction of MEDx.
Klotman and Cooney thanked Ginsberg for his "outstanding service and commitment to Duke and to the School of Medicine," and congratulated him on "this exciting next step in his accomplished career."