Domain Experts

Our Domain Experts serve a critical function in the CIViC community. Normally editor-level users, they are tasked with promoting and maintaining high quality data and interpretations in CIViC. Domain Experts are usually scientists or physician scientists, with advanced degrees (PhD or MD level), and demonstrated expertise (publication records) relevant to curation of knowledge for precision medicine in cancer. Domain Experts will typically take responsibility for curating the literature related to a specific cancer type, gene/pathway, or mutation type. They also are responsible for approving any new submissions or revisions from other curators in their domain area. Domain Experts come from two sources. First, individuals with established expertise in the field of precision medicine or domain expertise for a specific domain are identified and invited to join the CIViC community at the Domain Expert level. Alternatively, individuals may be promoted to Domain Expert level based on expertise demonstrated through an exceptional contribution history in CIViC.

Arpad Danos

Dr. Danos is a Staff Scientist in the Griffith Lab, with research interests in developing data and knowledge models which can describe and give structure to clinical and preclinical cancer variant knowledge, and in developing standards to enable efficient trasnfer and communication of this information between groups who are generating and curating this data, as well as with the medical and research community at large, in order to address the curation bottleneck which has arisen with increasing incorporation of NGS technology into clinical as well as research contexts. Dr. Danos is also interested in elucidation of the regulatory structure of the genome, and the role of non-coding mutations in cancer.

Obi Griffith

Dr. Griffith is Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine. He has worked in genomics and bioinformatics since the earliest phase of reference genome sequencing. He contributed to the Mammalian Gene Collection, producing some of the first full-length sequences for many human genes. He also was part of a small team of bioinformaticians that helped sequence and release the first whole genome reference sequence for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus at the height of the 2003 epidemic. He has contributed to the identification of molecular markers at the DNA, RNA and protein level that are useful for diagnosis and prognosis of thyroid, breast, lymphoma and other cancers. His lab’s research is focused on the development of informatics resources and personalized medicine strategies for cancer using genomic technologies. He is a co-creator of the CIViC resource.

Malachi Griffith

Dr. Griffith is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr Griffith has extensive experience in the fields of genomics, bioinformatics, data mining, and cancer research. His research is focused on improving the understanding of cancer biology and the development of personalized medicine strategies for cancer using genomics and informatics technologies. The Griffith lab develops bioinformatics and statistical methods for the analysis of high throughput sequence data and identification of biomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic and drug response prediction. The Griffith lab uses CIViC to interpret variants identified in cases examined by the WASHU Genomics Tumor Board. He is a co-creator of the CIViC resource.

Peter Horak

Dr. Horak is a medical oncologist at the National Center for Tumor Diseases in Heidelberg, Germany. He is involved in the comprehensive genomic analysis of cancer patient cohorts from the precision oncology platform of the German Cancer Consortium - NCT MASTER. He received his MD and PhD from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.





Raymond Kim

Raymond Kim received his MD/PhD from the University of Toronto with Dr. Tak W. Mak in Medical Biophysics. He then completed a residency in Internal Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Medical Genetics at The Hospital for Sick Children. His clinical interests lie in transition of care, complex multi-disciplinary care, and adult hereditary disorders. His research interests incorporate novel genomic technologies in clinical care including whole genome sequencing and circulating DNA. He has a large clinical practice in hereditary tumour disorders and is the Scientific Lead in the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, Cardiac Genome Clinic.

Kilannin Krysiak

Dr. Krysiak is an Instructor at the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine where she is involved in the comprehensive genomic analysis of cancer patient cohorts and “n-of-1” studies. She received her PhD in Molecular Genetics and Genomics at Washington University in St. Louis where she focused on the genetics of myelodysplastic syndrome through advanced flow cytometry techniques, primary cell culture and mouse models. She is a founding member of the CIViC team, helping to define the CIViC knowledge model, and a leading content curator and feature development consultant.

Damian Rieke

Damian Rieke is a physician and researcher at the Charité Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Department for Hematology, Oncology and Tumor Immunology at Charité - University Medicine Berlin in Berlin, Germany. His main areas of interest include the development of targeted therapy strategies and the targeted use of immune therapeutics as well as their application in clinic.





Jason Saliba

Dr. Saliba is a Senior Scientist in the Griffith Lab at the Washington University School of Medicine. He received his PhD in Molecular and Human Genetics from Baylor College of Medicine. During his training, he studied germline susceptibility genes and somatic relapse drivers in pediatric leukemia with a special interest in pharmacogenetics. His primary focus is the editorial maintenance of CIViC along with driving the evolution of the knowledgebase and fostering enhancements through training and collaborations.



Alex Wagner

Dr. Wagner is an Assistant Professor at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University, where he leads the development of tools and standards for advancing precision medicine and our knowledge of genomic alterations in cancers. He is also the managing co-director of the international Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium (VICC; cancervariants.org) and co-leads the Variant Representation group of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (ga4gh.org). In this capacity, he works as a lead developer of several emerging standards, including:

  • A Standard Operating Procedure for the Curation of Gene Fusions

  • The GA4GH Variation Representation Specification (VRS, “verse”)

  • The GA4GH Variant Origination Policy

  • The GA4GH Data Transfer Object Specification

Dr. Wagner also holds key roles in the American Society of Hematology Somatic Working Group and the ClinGen Somatic Working Group, where he works to apply these standards to the clinical curation and interpretation of genomic variants.