Iowa Eye Association News Nov. 2003. Series 2, no. 38.

University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

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Braun and Scheetz Appointed as Assistant Professors
of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences

An interdisciplinary approach has been embraced by bioinformatics collaborators and has created groundbreaking research in the area of applied computational science within genomics, genetics, and molecular biology. These efforts have included high-throughput genotyping, web-based tools for genetic linkage analysis, cDNA/EST sequencing, gene discovery and mapping, and micro-array hybridization and gene expression. Among the collaborators in this team approach are Todd Scheetz, PhD, and Terry A. Braun, PhD, who now have primary appointments as Assistant Professors in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Terry A. Braun, PhD

Dr. Braun is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, and is the Director of the Coordinated Laboratory for Computational Genomics (CLCG). He holds a master's degree from the University of Iowa in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a PhD from the University of Iowa in Genetics. The CLCG applies computational techniques and algorithms to large-scale problems in biology, genetics, and medicine. The CLCG has on-going research efforts in gene discovery, micro-array infrastructure development, and disease gene prioritization and identification in multiple disorders. Currently, Braun is developing bioinformatic resources to accelerate mutation identification for disease gene identification. This involves modeling sequence features and annotation for use in inferring the potential for pathogenicity in gene sequences (coding and non-coding). His research interests also include modeling higher-order chromosomal features.

Todd Scheetz, PhD

Dr. Scheetz is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and a member of the Center for Macular Degeneration (CMD), the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CBCB), and the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center (HCCC). He earned a master's degree from the University of Iowa in Electrical and Computer Engineering (1995) and a PhD from the University of Iowa in Genetics (2001). For his PhD thesis, he was mentored by Drs. Thomas Casavant, M. Bento Soares, and Val Sheffield working on an NIH-funded project aimed at developing new resources for the laboratory rat. During this time, he created chromosome-spanning genetic framework maps. He has also created comparative maps between rat and mouse, and between rat and human, identifying 50 syntenic segments between rat and mouse, and 132 between rat and human. Since receiving his PhD in May 2001, he has worked on a variety of gene discovery, annotation, and expression analysis research projects.

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