Research Interests
Key words: Rare Disease, Real World Data, Ontologies, Semantics, Precision Medicine
Translational science breaks down traditional silos between scientific disciplines, empowering research innovation and implementation in biomedicine. The Translational and Integrative Sciences Laboratory (TISLab) applies semantic engineering technologies to these varied disciplines to understand the relationship between phenotypes, genetic endowment, and the environment. We aim to accelerate progress and amplify discovery in areas such as rare diseases, long-Covid, Down Syndrome, cancer, and for societal and public health issues such as pandemic response and climate change. TISLab builds global standards to aid communities in advancing their own analytics and is an invested partner in open and team science with diverse contributors.
Mentor Training:
Publications
Melissa Haendel in UNC Genetics News

November 19, 2024
Haendel Awarded New ARPA-H Subcontract
Dr. Melissa Haendel (Distinguished Professor, Genetics and School of Data Science and Society) has received a new subcontract through University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) for an ARPA-H funded grant titled “CHARM: An End-to-End Toolchain for Collecting, Harmonizing, Analyzing, Reasoning about and Manipulating Biomedical Data”.

November 13, 2024
New Contracts, Subcontracts, and Supplements Awarded to Genetics Faculty
New contracts, subcontracts, and supplements awarded to Genetics Faculty Members Dr. Ichiro Misumi, Dr. Marty Ferris, and Dr. Melissa Haendel.

October 28, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for October 13th – 26th, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 13 papers during October 13th - 26th, 2024.

September 14, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for September 1st-14th, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 23 papers during September 1st - 14th, 2024.

September 12, 2024
Dr. Melissa Haendel Receives Leading for IMPACT – Women in Leadership Award
Melissa Haendel, PhD, FACMI (Distinguished Professor, Genetics) was recognized with a 2024 Leading for IMPACT – Women in Leadership Award from FORUM.

August 21, 2024
Dr. Melissa Haendel’s NHGRI RM1 Grant Transferred to UNC Department of Genetics
Melissa Haendel, PhD, FACMI (Distinguished Professor, Genetics) is the contact PI for the recently transferred RM1 grant from NHGRI titled “A phenomics-first resource for interpretation of variants”.

July 26, 2024
UNC-Chapel Hill research funding hits new milestone at $1.21B
Investment in Carolina’s research enterprise grew in FY24, with significant increases in funding from private organizations and federal agencies. The numbers are in and research at Carolina continues to grow. This is the fifth year in a row that research awards have topped $1 billion, facilitating research projects and experiments for external sponsors like federal …

June 24, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for June 9th – 22nd, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 12 papers during June 9th - 22nd 2024.

June 18, 2024
Center for Linkage and Acquisition of Data (CLAD) Grant Transferred to UNC Department of Genetics
The NIH Office of the Director-funded grant “Iron-CLAD: securely advancing All of Us participant characterization with proven platforms and collaborations” (Dr. Melissa Haendel, PI) has been transferred to UNC Genetics.

June 6, 2024
NIH All of Us Research Program Seeks Input on Next Phase of Data Linkages Curated through CLAD
The Center for Linkage and Acquisition of Data (CLAD), led by Dr. Melissa Haendel (Distinguished Professor, Genetics) “expands the types and research utility of program data available to researchers through passive data streams.”