IHI Adds 4 New Affiliate Faculty Members

The Institute for Health Informatics is excited to announce the appointment of four new Affiliate Faculty members: Dr. Margy McCullough-Hicks, Dr. Juan Carlos Rivera-Mulia, Dr. Peter B. Kang and Dr. Christina Pacak. They will join an outstanding group of Affiliate Faculty with a vast array of knowledge, educational backgrounds, and experiences in the IHI. Please see their accomplishments below.

Dr. McCullough-Hicks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, Vascular Neurology Division. She has a longstanding background in neuroimaging research and is currently developing machine learning-based models to help predict stroke patients’ functional outcomes based on their baseline perfusion neuroimaging profiles.

Dr. Juan Carlos Rivera-Mulia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics (BMBB) of the University of Minnesota Medical School. His research uses multiple genomic technologies as well as computational approaches to construct integrative models of nuclear function. Research in the Rivera-Mulia lab also exploits human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and optimized differentiation systems to model development and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients to model disease alterations.

Peter B. Kang, MD is the Director of the Paul & Sheila Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center, Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Neurology, and Scholar at the Institute for Translational Neuroscience (ITN). He is a pediatric neuromuscular neurologist and physician scientist whose research interests focus on the genetics of muscular dystrophy and the role of the Notch pathway in inherited muscle disease. Key discoveries from his laboratory include the development of a software pipeline to detect hidden splice site variants, and the first description of JAG2 as a gene associated with muscular dystrophy.

Christina Pacak joined the University of Minnesota faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Neurology Department in winter 2021. Her laboratory uses global proteomics strategies to investigate underlying disease mechanisms and test the therapeutic efficacy of adeno-associated virus (AAV) mediated gene delivery systems in a variety of rare disease settings.