Julie A. Johnson, Pharm.D., is dean of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and distinguished professor of Pharmacy and Medicine. She received her B.S. in Pharmacy from the Ohio State University and her Pharm.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in cardiovascular pharmacology/pharmacokinetics at Ohio State.

Johnson’s research focuses on cardiovascular pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine implementation. She is an internationally-recognized leader in pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine, with over 300 peer reviewed publications and nearly $50 million in research funding as principal investigator. In 2015, 2016, 2017 she was named a Thomson Reuters (now Clarivate Analytics) Highly Cited Scientist in Pharmacology and Toxicology, and in 2018 in the Cross Discipline category, indicating she is in the top 1% of the most highly cited scientists in the field globally.

Johnson has served on the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA, the XNDA Study Section at NIH, and in numerous scientific capacities with NIH’s NHLBI. She has had leadership roles in the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP), the American Heart Association (AHA), and the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), for which she completed her term as President in 2017. She is an elected fellow of the ACCP, the AHA and the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP-Pharmacology). Johnson was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) in 2014 and has received numerous other awards including teaching awards from both the University of Tennessee (1996) and the University of Florida (2001); the Ohio State University Alumni Association William Oxley Thompson Award for early career achievement (1997), Leon I Goldberg Young Investigator Award from the ASCPT (2004), Paul Dawson Biotechnology Research Award, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) (2007), Therapeutic Frontiers Award (2009) and Russell R Miller Award for Contributions to the Literature (2010), both from ACCP, the Southeastern Universities Research Association Distinguished Scientist Award (2015); AACP Volwiler Research Achievement Award (2016), the ACCP-Pharmacology Distinguished Scientist Award (2019), and ACCP Paul Parker Medal (2019), among others.

Dr. Cavallari received her B.S. Pharmacy and Pharm.D. degrees from the University of Georgia. She then completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Pharmacogenomics at the University of Florida. Dr. Cavallari accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago after completing her training and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. While at UIC, she directed efforts to implement genotype-guided warfarin dosing for all patients newly starting warfarin during hospitalization. Dr. Cavallari joined the University of Florida Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research as an Associate Professor in April, 2014, where she serves as director of the Center for Pharmacogenomics and Precision Medicine. She also serves as Director of the UF Health Precision Medicine Program. Her research involves discovery and clinical translation of genetic variants related to drug response and has been funded by the NIH, FDA, American Heart Association, and other awards.

Dr. Cavallari has served on both NIH and American Heart Association grant review committees and is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist, Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, former Chair of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Research Institute, and Editorial Board Member for the Lexi-Comp pharmacogenetics series.

Michael J. Clare-Salzler, MD, is a professor of medicine who received his medical degree and internal medicine training from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He began his clinical endocrinology and immunology research career at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he studied the immunopathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. 

Dr. Clare-Salzler maintains an active practice in endocrinology, treating patients with diabetes and other endocrine diseases. 

Dr. Cooper-DeHoff is a Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research, and the Department of Pharmaceutics in the College of Pharmacy, and in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, College of Medicine at the University of Florida.

Julio Duarte received his Pharm.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Florida. After completing training, he became an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he served for over four years. While there, Dr. Duarte became the director of the pharmacogenomics laboratory, and also co-director of the University of Illinois Hospital Personalized Medicine Program. In late 2015, he returned to the University of Florida as an assistant professor within the department of pharmacotherapy and translational research. Dr. Duarte’s research interests include the biological mechanisms behind both disease development and drug response in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension. His NIH-funded laboratory conducts translational research, attempting to discover genomic predictors of drug response, as well as using genomics to identify novel targets for future drug development. He has served on U.S Department of Defense grant review committees and is also an active member of the Council for Functional Genomics and Translational Biology within the American Heart Association.

Dr. Jatinder Lamba is currently Professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research. She did her post-doctoral training at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Prior to joining University of Florida, she was an Associate Professor at University of Minnesota, Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy and the Director of the Pathway driven Pharmacogenomics; University of Minnesota Alliance (PUMA) Institute of Personalized Medicine.

Dr Lamba’s research is focused on identification, characterization and clinical validation of genomic/epigenomic markers predictive of therapeutic outcome in cancer patients. This research spans from preclinical basic research comprising the discovery phase utilizing cell line model systems to translational/clinical phase in patient populations from multi-institute clinical trials. The long-term goal of her research is to move pharmacogenetic testing into the clinical setting to improve safety and efficacy of drug therapy. Dr. Lamba’s research on pharmacogenomics of anti-leukemic agents has been funded by NIH/NCI since 2008. Specifically, her current NCI funded R01 focuses on pharmacogenomics/ epigenomics of cytarabine (ara-C), a nucleoside analog that is the backbone of anti-leukemia chemotherapy in pediatric AML patients. Her group is working on developing algorithms to incorporate pharmacogenomics/epigenomic markers with other prognostic factors to advance precision medicine in oncology. Identification of such patients upfront will provide opportunity to tailor the initial chemotherapy to achieve maximum benefit.

Dr. Lamba’s lab is the first one to identify genetic polymorphisms in CD33 gene that are predictive of response to CD33 targeted agents in AML. These results hold promise in utilizing preemptive genotype to select patients most likely to benefit from CD33-directed therapy such as gemtuzumab ozogamicin in treating AML. Previous work on CD33 genomics was funded by NCI and more in-depth characterization of CD33 as AML therapeutic target is funded by a recent award from leukemia Lymphoma Society.

Given a critical gap of our understanding in metabolic dysregulation in AML, Dr. Lamba’s group is focused understanding the metabolomics differences and biomarkers of prognostic significance in pediatric AML. Dr. Lamba’s recent work is focused towards utilizing transcriptomics to build and refine leukemic stem cell signatures and AML drug response signatures of prognostic and predictive value in AML.

Dr. Lamba has served as chair of Pharmacogenomics SIG at AACP (2013) and is currently vice-chair of Pharmacogenomics focus group with AAPS. She has served as a grant reviewer for numerous NIH study sections and has reviewed grants for international agencies as Italian Ministry of Health. She has published more than 90 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and is on the editorial boards of Leukemia and Lymphoma, Pharmacogenomics and Frontiers in Pharmacogenomics and genomics, JCMM. Dr. Lamba is currently Professor in College of Pharmacy and is also Graduate Program coordinator for PTR department. Dr. Lamba is very committed towards training of future generation of scientist. She has trained 6 Ph. D students, 5 Post-doctoral fellows several Pharm D students and 3 hematology-oncology fellows and several under-graduate students including minority and underrepresented students.

David R. Nelson, M.D., was appointed senior vice president for health affairs at the University of Florida and president of UF Health in April 2019. Dr. Nelson oversees operations for all components of UF Health, the university’s academic health center, with campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville. This includes six health science colleges, nine interdisciplinary research centers, three hospital systems and more than 100 physician practices. He is committed to strategically position UF Health for smart growth; enhancing operations; supporting faculty, staff and students; and fostering a diverse, inclusive and equitable community. He also has continued to explore ways to optimize the speed of translation of research, bringing science to the bedside and to the community to improve patient care for individuals and populations. A professor of medicine and an expert in liver disease, Dr. Nelson’s record of academic achievement includes more than $100 million in research funding, more than 200 publications and multiple leadership roles in his area of expertise. He has co-authored the U.S. treatment guidelines for hepatitis C, the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium guidelines for the use of genomic-guided hepatitis C (HCV) therapy, and represented the United States on the World Health Organization HCV guidelines committee. As a principal investigator on basic science, translational research and training grants, he developed an international real world data network (HCV-TARGET), a collaboration between clinician investigators, the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This transformed drug development pathways and led to faster and safer development of HCV therapies, resulting in his recognition by the FDA with the Regulatory Science Excellence Honor in 2018. In 2013, he was recognized for one of the Clinical Research Forum’s Top 10 Clinical Research Achievements and in 2014, he received the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Learning Health System Research Champion Award. He has continuously been recognized as one of America’s top physicians/gastroenterologists and has been the recipient of multiple exemplary teaching awards, an outstanding alumnus award from his medical school, a UF Research Foundation Professorship Award and a UF Term Professorship Award.

Dr. Nelson received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and his medical degree from State University of New York Upstate University in Syracuse, New York. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Massachusetts and obtained fellowship training in gastroenterology and hepatology at UF.

Dr. Wang received her MD degree from Fudan University Medical School and her Ph.D from the Academy of Military Medical Science in Beijing. She did postdoctoral training at the University of California San Francisco. She was a Research Assistant Professor at Ohio State University, Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics and Associate Director of Center for Pharmacogenomics prior to joining the University of Florida.

Dr. Wang’s research interests are the discovery of genetic biomarkers for personalized drug therapy. She has discovered many functional regulatory variants in genes related to drug therapy in the areas of cardiovascular diseases, mental diseases and drug dependence. Some of these functional variants are currently included in biomarker testing panels to predict drug response.

Funded by NIH R01 award, “Expression genetics of CYP3A drug metabolizing enzymes”, Dr. Wang’s current research is to understand factors controlling the expression of CYP3A, the main drug metabolizing enzyme in the liver. Using recently developed cutting edge functional genetics/genomics approaches, the research will focus on understanding what genetic, epigenetic and non-genetic factors may contribute to CYP3A variability, with the goal to identify biomarker predicting CYP3A enzyme activity for personalized therapy of nearly 50% of currently used medications.

Dr. Wang has served as an Associate Editor of “European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences” and was on editorial Board of “Journal of Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacoproteomics”. She has also served as grant reviewer for NIH.

Dr. Kwara is a professor of medicine within the Division of Infectious Diseases & Global Medicine. He is an Infectious Diseases Specialist with broad expertise in general infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS and travel medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Ghana Medical School and master’s in public health and tropical medicine degree from Tulane University. Dr. Kwara completed Internal Medicine Residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and an Infectious Disease Fellowship at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases. He is also certified in Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers’ Health.

Dr. George is a clinical investigator and educator with a focus on gastrointestinal malignancies. As director of the GI Oncology Program at the University of Florida, Dr. George helps to oversee the treatment of all patients with GI malignancies. He previously served as chair of the Medical Advisory Board to the State of Florida Department of Health and the Screen for Life Colorectal Cancer Screening Program, which targets historically underserved populations. He also recently completed a 10 year term as the gubernatorial-appointed chair of the Florida Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council, which advises the legislature, Department of Health, and state surgeon general on all cancer related matters and policy. He currently serves as the Associate Director for Clinical Research at the UF Health Cancer Center. Through participation with large oncology clinical trial cooperative groups and the National Cancer Institute, Dr. George is an active clinician and clinical investigator in GI malignancies and early phase clinical trials testing new therapies for patients with advanced cancers. He is a member of the medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and numerous cancer research groups.