Our team

Our Team

The MyVariant team is a group centered at the University of Washington dedicated to helping patients and families understand unique genetic variants. ConnectMyVariant is supported by the University of Washington, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, UW CoMotion, and the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. The preliminary research that led to this project was funded by the NIH and by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Who We Are

Leadership

Brian Shirts, MD, PhD

Dr. Shirts is an Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington. His professional goal is to help prevent all hereditary cancer. In his clinical role, he supports a large range of clinical genetic testing from cell-free testing for prenatal screening to exome testing to hereditary cancer testing.

Annie T. Chen, PhD

Dr. Chen is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the University of Washington. Her research interests include information behaviors in the context of chronic conditions, health-related social media use, and research methods.

Emily Malouf, MGC, CGC

Emily Malouf is a licensed certified genetic counselor at the University of Washington Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. Before joining the ConnectMyVariant team, she worked with people that have cancer in them or their families and coordinated diagnostic genetic testing for hereditary cancer conditions. She also has experience working in several other areas of genetic counseling, including hereditary cardiac and neurologic conditions, and research.

Jill Crandell, MA, AG

Prof Crandell is an Associate Teaching Professor at Brigham Young University and Director of the BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy.