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Dr. Preethi Gunaratne brings extensive experience in genomics, analytics and personalized medicine. Following a stint as Assistant Director of the Baylor College of Medicine DNA Diagnostic laboratory. In 1999 she joined the International Human Genome Project through which she directly contributed to the sequencing and annotation of Human Chromosomes 3, 12 and X. In 2000 she was appointed Director of gene (cDNA) sequencing at the Baylor Human Genome Sequencing Center (Baylor-HGSC). In 2005 she lead her team to make the largest single contribution of 15,000 sequences each to the National Cancer Institutesā€™ (NCI) Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) in Phase I and the National Institute for Diabetes & Digestive Kidney Disease (NIDDK) - Stem Cell Genome Anatomy Project (SCGAP). Dr. Gunaratne joined the University of Houston in 2006 and went on to establish one of the first comprehensive functional genomics platforms to rationally define genetic signatures that accurately stratify and predict responsive and non-responsive host genomes to externally administered microRNAs and drugs. She collaborated with teams from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) to pioneer methods for discovering strong tumor suppressor microRNAs for ovarian, colorectal, metastatic breast, skin and kidney cancers, multiple myeloma, and pediatric neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma. Through this work Dr. Gunaratneā€™s group has also established a framework for defining unique microRNA-regulated gene signatures that can be used for personalizing cancer treatments based on underlying genetic mutations in tumors as defined by Whole Exome or Whole Genome sequencing (WES or WGS). To rapidly translate their findings into clinical practice Dr. Gunaratne co-founded NEXTmiRNA Technologies a company dedicated to harnessing tumor suppressor microRNAs as the Next Generation cancer drugs ā€“ acting as circuit breakers of multiple oncogenic pathways driving cancer. Preclinical work for a tumor suppressor microRNA for ovarian cancer.