Chris Whelan

Chris Whelan Email and Phone Number

Boston, MA, US
Chris Whelan's Location
Boston, Massachusetts, United States, United States
Chris Whelan's Contact Details
About Chris Whelan

I am a research scientist trained in neuroscience and statistical genetics.I founded the ENIGMA-Epilepsy and UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project (UKB-PPP) consortia, the latter of which I have chaired since 2020. I am passionate about the application of systems biology techniques for biomarker development and drug discovery, with a strong interest in next-generation molecular profiling technologies for precision medicine.

Chris Whelan's Current Company Details
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

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Director
Boston, MA, US
Website:
jnj.com
Employees:
100890
Chris Whelan Work Experience Details
  • Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
    Director
    Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
    Boston, Ma, Us
  • Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
    Director
    Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine Sep 2022 - Present
    I lead the Neuroscience Data Science: Discovery & Molecular group - a team of systems biology scientists responsible for building & analyzing large-scale multi-omic datasets to support therapeutic target discovery, biomarker development & biological hypothesis testing for neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric illnesses.
  • Biogen
    Associate Director
    Biogen Dec 2020 - Sep 2022
    Cambridge, Ma, Us
    I led Translational Genetics, a subgroup of five human geneticists, primarily supporting Biogen's Neurodegeneration Research and Development units. Translational Genetics engaged in large-scale research to discover novel biomarkers for neurodegenerative illnesses, investigate the genetic underpinnings of protein concentrations & neuroimaging endpoints, and disentangle the genetic underpinnings of disease progression in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Some of the group's projects included:• The UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project (UKB-PPP): We led a pre-competitive collaboration involving ten major biopharmaceutical companies, whereby ~3,000 circulating proteins will be analyzed from the blood samples of 53,000 UK citizens • Neurodegeneration genetics and biomarker discovery: We collaborated with several academic KOLs and leverage several key natural history studies, such as the Swedish BioFINDER study and the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging, to help identify novel biomarkers of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and investigate genetic influences on core CSF biomarkers• Alzheimer's disease clinical trials sequencing: We conducted genotyping and exome sequencing of Alzheimer's disease clinical trials to help uncover novel insights into the genetics of drug response and cognitive decline.
  • Biogen
    Senior Scientist
    Biogen Apr 2018 - Dec 2020
    Cambridge, Ma, Us
    Senior Scientist (Senior Manager) in Statistical Genetics in the Translational Biology R&D group. My projects included large-scale investigations of neuroimaging, genetics, and cognitive measures in UK Biobank, pharmacogenomic studies of drug response in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials, identification of blood- and CSF-based biomarkers and pQTLs for neurodegenerative illnesses, and studies of "human knockouts" to assess potential safety signals for therapeutic targets. I also served as Biology Lead for an epilepsy program, combining human data with in-vivo and in-vitro evidence to understand mechanism of action and identify appropriate patient populations for clinical trials recruitment.
  • Pfizer
    Manager, Neuroscience Genetics
    Pfizer Sep 2016 - Mar 2018
    New York, New York, Us
    Applied Human Geneticist and Scientific Strategy Lead for Neuroscience at the Genome Sciences & Technologies Unit, Pfizer Worldwide Research & Development, Kendall Square, Cambridge MA. I led human genetics and human biology projects to help support drug target identification, drug target validation, and biomarker discovery for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and other neuropsychiatric illnesses. I collaborated with several cross-disciplinary teams at Pfizer's Neuroscience research unit, coordinating genome-wide association studies, large-scale plasma/CSF proteomics projects, neuroimaging collaborations, in-vitro functional genomics studies, and in-silico RNA-seq analyses.I served as point-of-contact for all neuroscience genetics projects at Pfizer until the company departed the therapeutic area in 2018.
  • University Of Southern California
    Postdoctoral Researcher
    University Of Southern California Oct 2014 - Sep 2016
    Los Angeles, Ca, Us
    Post-doctoral research fellow and program manager for the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) consortium: An international network of neuroscientists, clinicians and statistical geneticists. Working with the overall consortium PI, Professor Paul Thompson, I helped coordinate an NIH-funded scientific portfolio of over 30 international collaborations, leading to several high-impact publications in Nature, Nature Genetics, Molecular Psychiatry, Neuroimage, Brain, and many more.In my initial role as a post-doctoral fellow, I co-founded and led ENIGMA-Epilepsy - an international consortium of epilepsy clinicians, geneticists, and neuroscientists (Whelan et al., Brain, 2018). I also validated an automated FreeSurfer algorithm to automatically extract human hippocampal subfields from brain MRI scans (Whelan et al., NeuroImage, 2016), and contributed to multiple ENIGMA GWAS papers (Hibar et al., Nature 2015, Nature Communications 2017; Adams et al., Nature Neuroscience 2016).

Chris Whelan Skills

Neuroscience Gwas Mri Western Blotting Rt Pcr Fmri Neuroimaging Animal Models Spss Population Genetics Matlab Epilepsy Statistical Genetics Technical Writing R Diffusion Tensor Imaging Spectroscopy Scientific Writing Genetic Imputation Statistical Computing Linux Conference Coordination Unix Shell Scripting Genetic Algorithms Dna Extraction Genotyping Centrifugation Sds Page Genome Analysis Conference Organization Nanodrop Shell Scripting Science Statistics Research Genetics Life Sciences Data Analysis Clinical Research Molecular Biology Drug Discovery Psychology Strategic Planning Organizational Leadership Organization Skills Communication Leadership Team Leadership Human Genetics Biomarkers Biomarker Discovery Parkinson's Disease Alzheimer's Disease Schizophrenia Biomarker Development Translational Genetics Translational Medicine Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Proteomics Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction

Chris Whelan Education Details

  • Royal College Of Surgeons In Ireland (Rcsi)
    Royal College Of Surgeons In Ireland (Rcsi)
    Neuroscience And Genetics
  • Trinity College Dublin
    Trinity College Dublin
    Neuroscience
  • University College Dublin
    University College Dublin
    Psychology

Frequently Asked Questions about Chris Whelan

What company does Chris Whelan work for?

Chris Whelan works for Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

What is Chris Whelan's role at the current company?

Chris Whelan's current role is Director.

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What schools did Chris Whelan attend?

Chris Whelan attended Royal College Of Surgeons In Ireland (Rcsi), Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin.

What are some of Chris Whelan's interests?

Chris Whelan has interest in Human Rights, Science And Technology, Politics, Poverty Alleviation.

What skills is Chris Whelan known for?

Chris Whelan has skills like Neuroscience, Gwas, Mri, Western Blotting, Rt Pcr, Fmri, Neuroimaging, Animal Models, Spss, Population Genetics, Matlab, Epilepsy.

Who are Chris Whelan's colleagues?

Chris Whelan's colleagues are Irving L., Luigi Voulgarelis, Denise Costa, Mehul Tyagi, Edwin Rosario, Gedison Soares, Laura Perrem.

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