Mary Helen Black, PhD
Senior Vice President, Head of Human Genomics
Mary Helen is VP, Head of Human Genomics, leading a team focused on developing computational platforms leveraging large-scale clinical and genomic data to support new and early ventures.
Prior to joining Labs, Mary Helen was Head of Population Analytics in Janssen R&D, focusing on analyzing large-scale population-based genomics datasets, such as that of the UK Biobank, to identify and validate targets for drug development, predict target-associated liabilities, assess opportunities for drug repurposing, and inform clinical trial design. She also worked for Ambry Genetics as Director of Statistical Genetics, and at Kaiser Permanente as a Research Scientist with a research program focused on the genetic epidemiology of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, as well as pharmacogenetics. She earned her PhD in Statistical Genetics and Genetic Epidemiology and MS in Biostatistics from the University of Southern California.
- More than 15 years of experience leading genomics research across a wide array of complex diseases, as well as developing and applying new statistical methods for genomics analysis, spanning non-profit research, clinical genomics, and pharmaceutical R&D.
- Former Head of Population Genomics at Janssen, where I built and led a diverse team of >20 scientists to leverage biobank-scale genomic and phenotypic data to discover novel targets for therapeutic development, predict target-associated liabilities, identify opportunities for drug repurposing, and assess patient stratification for clinical trial design.
- Prior to working in industry, served as Principal Investigator on large-scale studies of metabolic biomarkers and pharmacogenetics funded by NIDDK and FDA, with over 75 peer-reviewed publications in scientific and medical journals.