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CERA is led by a multi-disciplinary team with advanced expertise in genomics, bioethics, legal analysis, social science research, and related fields. The CERA leadership identifies priority areas in ELSI, ensures the integrity of our collection of ELSI resources and analysis, and guides the community building and engagement activities of the Center.

Co-Investigators

CERA Co-Investigators are affiliated with Stanford University, Columbia University, and The Hastings Center. They bring diverse expertise in online research portal development, meta-research, research synthesis methodologies, literature curation and annotation processes, ontology development, community engagement strategies, and public policy

  • Deanne Dunbar Dolan

    Deanne Dunbar Dolan, Ph.D.

    Deanne Dunbar Dolan, Ph.D. is a Research Scholar at Stanford Medicine. She completed master’s degrees in history of medicine and anthropology and a doctorate in anthropology at Emory University. At CERA, Deanne co-directs operations, co-leads the curation and synthesis and web development teams, manages CERA partnerships with academic journals, and the is the general editor of ELSIhub Collections.

  • Maya Sabatello, LL.B., Ph.D.

    Maya Sabatello, LL.B., Ph.D.

    Maya Sabatello, LL.B., Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Clinical Bioethics at Columbia University. She specializes in bioethics, disability studies, and international/comparative human rights. Her research focuses on law, society, medicine, and disability; assisted reproductive technologies; and the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics, especially in pediatrics and underserved populations.

  • David Magnus, Ph.D.  ELSIhub Co-Investigator

    David Magnus, Ph.D.

    David Magnus, PhD is Thomas A. Raffin Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Ethics and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and by Courtesy of Bioengineering at Stanford University and an Associate Dean for Research. Magnus is a member of the Ethics Committee for the Stanford Hospital. He is currently the Vice-Chair of the IRB for the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative ("All of Us"). He is the former President of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors, and is the Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Bioethics.

  • Teri Klein, Ph.D. ELSIhub Co-Investigator

    Teri Klein, Ph.D.

    Teri E. Klein, Ph.D. is Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Data Sciences and Medicine (Division of Biomedical Informatics Research) and Genetics (by courtesy) at Stanford University. She is Co-Principal Investigator of PharmGKB, a pharmacogenomics knowledge resource that annotates pharmacogenetic variants, curates drug dosing guidelines and FDA drug labels, summarizes important pharmacogenomics literature, and enables consortia, Co-Principal Investigator of CPIC, a pharmacogenetics consortium for the creation, curation and dissemination of peer-reviewed, evidence-based pharmacogenetics clinical practice guidelines, Co-Principal Investigator of PharmCAT, a tool for software tool to extract guideline variants from a genetic dataset, interpret the variant alleles, and generate a report with genotype-based prescribing recommendations which can be used to inform treatment decisions, and, Co-Principal Investigator for the ClinGen, a central resource that defines the clinical relevance of genes and variants for use in precision medicine and research.

  • Josephine Johnston, L.L.B, M.B.H.L  ELSIhub Co-Investigator

    Josephine Johnston, L.L.B, M.B.H.L

    Josephine Johnston, L.L.B, M.B.H.L is a Senior Research Scholar at the Hastings Center and Associate Professor in the Bioethics Center at University of Otago. Trained in law and bioethics, Ms. Johnston has led several projects on ELSI issues related to prenatal genetic testing, gene editing, and newborn sequencing. She is an expert on the ethical, legal, and policy implications of biomedical technologies, particularly as used in human reproduction, psychiatry, genetics, and neuroscience.

  • Paul Appelbaum, M.D. ELSIhub Co-Investigator

    Paul Appelbaum, M.D.

    Paul Appelbaum, M.D. is the Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine & Law at Columbia, and was Director of the Columbia Center for Research on Ethical, Legal, & Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic, and Behavioral Genetics from 2010-23. Dr. Appelbaum's research focuses on the ethical and legal implications of neuropsychiatric genetics and how legal and ethical rules affect medical practice and research, including informed consent, decisional capacity, mandatory treatment, advance directives, and confidentiality.