Management Structure

The Center will be administered by two Co-Directors and an Advisory Committee. Policies and procedures will be developed by the steering committee, which will meet quarterly. Key strategic goals and plans will be developed through broadly based input from internal and external advisory committee members. The IAC and EAC are expected to meet on an annual basis with the steering committee members.

Profiles of Co-Directors
Dr. Babu Guda, Ph.D. (UNMC)
Dr. Guda is the Assistant Dean for Research Development, College of Medicine, UNMC, who manages a well-funded Bioinformatics and Systems Biology research program. He is also the founding director of the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Core facility, which currently supports over 150 independent investigators across the four NU campuses and many other institutions in Nebraska and surrounding states. He has an interdisciplinary training background in molecular biology, computer science, and computational biology, with over 25 years of experience in bioinformatics research, teaching, and mentoring.  Dr. Guda has been the PI or Co-PI on several research projects funded by NIH and other agencies since 2008 and a member of various study sections at NIH. He has mentored over 60 mentees that include junior faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and student interns in different areas of biomedical informatics. Dr. Guda has published over 135 peer-reviewed research articles that cover a wide range of topics related to bioinformatics, systems biology, microbiome and metagenomics, cancer genomics, and precision medicine. His expertise also encompasses clinical diagnostics, translational informatics, and database and web application development. He currently serves as a PI, Co-I, or Core-Lead on over ten extramurally funded research projects at UNMC that generate around $1.25 million directs per year to support a combined 12 FTEs between his Research and Core groups.

Dr. Ann Fruhling, Ph.D. (UNO)
Dr. Fruhling is a Professor and the founding Director of the School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, College of IS&T, UNO and a Charles W. and Margre H. Durham Distinguished Professor. The College of Information Science and Technology at UNO offers four degrees: Cybersecurity, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Informatics, and IT Innovation.  Since 2004, Dr. Fruhling has served as the Director of the Public Health Informatics Research Laboratory, employing several FTEs and funding dozens of graduate assistantships and over 70 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.  She has over 100 publications and has been a PI/Co-I on research projects totaling over $8.53 million. Dr. Fruhling's research focuses on health informatics and evaluating and improving human-computer interaction efficiency and effectiveness in the healthcare and public health domains.  Since 2002, she has been the PI of an emergency response system and bioterrorism surveillance system for public health laboratories called STATPack™, which has been deployed in over 65 health laboratories. Recently, Dr. Fruhling was a Co-I on an NIH R01, ARHQ grant that focuses on optimizing the EHR for cardiac care.   Currently, she is the PI for a UNO/UNMC collaborative grant sponsored by the Department of Transportation and awarded by UNL’s University Transportation Center.  This project is developing an application to minimize the health impact to first responders in the case of a HAZMAT transportation incident using internet of things (IoT) technologies including biosensors.   In addition, Dr. Fruhling is a Co-I for the Biomedical Informatics KCA that supports the UNMC NIH IDeA Center for Translational Research.  She is Co-I for a NU 2019 Collaborative Initiative project called, Enhancing Senior Living, Quality of Life and Independence through Utilizing Assistive and Interactive Technology that includes researchers from UNO Gerontology and UNMC.