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Meet Our Team

The Mass General Brigham Biobank team includes researchers, physicians, genetic counselors, research coordinators, software engineers, and laboratory technicians across Mass General Brigham.

Faculty leadership

Principal Investigator

Dr. Elizabeth Karlson is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Vice President of Mass General Brigham (MGB) Personalized Medicine, and a rheumatologist and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Karlson has leadership roles in numerous multi-institutional research projects including the eMERGE Clinical Center at MGB, the All of Us Research Program New England Consortium, and the Post-Acute Sequela of SARS-CoV2 Data Resource Core (PASC-DRC) and is Principal Investigator for the Mass General Brigham Biobank. Dr. Karlson has expertise in longitudinal cohort studies, disease epidemiology and genetics, biobanking, and the use of bioinformatics to define phenotypes in the EHR.

Dr. Karlson has conducted patient-oriented and translational research for 32 years with expertise in longitudinal cohort studies, disease epidemiology and genetics, biobanking, and the use of bioinformatics to define phenotypes in the electronic health record (EHR). She is the author or co-author of 300+ publications. She has led large scale recruitment and use of data and samples for the Mass General Brigham Biobank that collects samples, family history, lifestyle and environmental survey data linked with comprehensive health information from electronic health records from 147,000+ Mass General Brigham patients. She has served on grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health, Arthritis Foundation, and national grant agencies in Canada and Europe. She has served on the American College of Rheumatology Blue Ribbon Panel on Academic Rheumatology. As a dedicated mentor, Dr. Karlson has supervised and mentored 26 trainees, of whom 20 hold appointments at academic institutions, 7 have received NIH K awards, 14 have received career development awards, and 7 have received NIH R01 grants. She has received the Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award, the Excellence in Investigative Mentoring Award from the American College of Rheumatology, and the Senior Faculty Mentoring Award from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Co-Investigator

Dr. Pradeep Natarajan is the Director of Preventive Cardiology and the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Endowed Chair in Vascular Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. 

He received his BA in molecular biology with Honors and Phi Beta Kappa in 2004 from the University of California, Berkeley. He received his MD with Alpha Omega Alpha in 2008 from the University of California, San Francisco. He received his MMSc in biomedical informatics in 2015 from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Natarajan completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2011. He completed his clinical and research fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2015.

Dr. Natarajan uses germline and somatic genetic variation to uncover new biology and enable enhanced clinical care for cardiovascular disease. He leads several consortia to use genetic epidemiology, large-scale sequencing studies, genotype-driven human investigation, and genetic testing implementation. Among his scientific contributions, he has pioneered ‘human knockout’ discovery and investigation to prioritize therapeutic targets, monogenic and polygenic characterization of heritable traits through whole genome sequencing, and the novel concept of somatic mutations contributing to cardiovascular disease. 

In tandem his research efforts, Dr. Natarajan oversees clinical and training programs on the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases leading the MGH Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Center.

Co-Investigator

Dr. Kerry Ressler is the chief scientific officer and the James and Patricia Poitras Chair in psychiatry at McLean Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Ressler received his bachelor of science degree in molecular biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School. At Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital, he founded the Grady Trauma Project which focuses on understanding the psychology, biology, and trauma-related factors, contributing to intergenerational cycles of trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and depression in over 13,000 primarily minoritized participants from urban Atlanta. He is a co-leader of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), a PTSD workgroup (less than 300,000 samples worldwide) to understand the genetic architecture of PTSD. More recently, he is co-founder of the AURORA project to understand the biology of PTSD development in the first year after trauma exposure. He has also led a molecular neurobiology lab, targeting basic mechanisms of threat-related behaviors in rodent models for about 20 years to examine translational approaches to understanding and preventing threat-related disorders, such as PTSD and depression.

Dr. Ressler is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a prior Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a past president of the Society for Biological Psychiatry and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Related to PTSD, he is the chair of the scientific advisory board for the Army STARRS Project, and he is on scientific advisory boards for the Marine Resiliency Study and the National Center for PTSD. His work focuses on translational research, bridging molecular neurobiology in animal models with human genetic and epigenetic research on emotion, particularly PTSD, fear- and anxiety-related disorders. He has published over 500 manuscripts, ranging from genetic and basic molecular mechanisms of fear processing to understanding how emotion is encoded in the brain across animal models and human patients.

Co-Investigator  

Dr. Susan Slaugenhaupt is a Professor of Neurology (Genetics) at Mass General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the Scientific Director of the Mass General Research Institute and an Investigator in the Center for Genomic Medicine at Mass General. She is a human geneticist whose work focuses on two neurologic disorders, familial dysautonomia (FD) and mucolipidosis type IV (MLIV), as well as the common cardiac disorder mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Discoveries in the Slaugenhaupt Lab have led to the successful implementation of critical population screening for FD and MLIV, the identification of genes for familial MVP, and more recently to the development of therapeutics for FD and MLIV. Dr. Slaugenhaupt also spearheads several programs and educational initiatives at Mass General, including a thriving undergraduate summer internship program. Her Research Institute team works to promote science at Mass General by increasing interactions with industry, by fundraising for Research Institute initiatives, and by promoting Mass General research to both internal and external audiences. In 2013, Dr. Slaugenhaupt was named the Elizabeth G. Riley and Daniel E. Smith, Jr. MGH Research Scholar. In 2016, she was honored with a prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and in 2016 she was named one of the Top Ten Women to Watch in Science and Technology by the Boston Business Journal. She was elected to the Board of the American Society of Human Genetics in 2018 and she serves on the Board of Trustees at Eckerd College. She was recently named the Elizabeth G. Riley and Daniel E. Smith Jr. Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair.

Co-Investigator  

Dr. Jordan Smoller is a psychiatrist, epidemiologist, and geneticist whose research focus has been understanding the genetic and environmental determinants of psychiatric disorders across the lifespan and using big data to advance precision mental health including improved methods to reduce risk and enhance resilience. 

Dr. Smoller is the Jerrold F. Rosenbaum Endowed Chair in Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. He is Associate Chief for Research in the MGH Department of Psychiatry, Director of the Center for Precision Psychiatry, Director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine, and co-Director of the Center for Suicide Research and Prevention at MGH and Harvard. Dr. Smoller is a Tepper Family MGH Research Scholar and also serves as Director of the Omics Unit of the MGH Division of Clinical Research and co-Director of the Mass General Brigham Biobank at MGH. He is also co-Director of the Mass General Brigham Training Program in Precision and Genomic Medicine, an Associate Member of the Broad Institute and past President of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics.

He has played a leading role in national and international efforts to advance precision and genomic medicine. He is a Principal Investigator (PI) in the eMERGE (Electronic Medical Records and Genomics) network, founding PI of the PsycheMERGE Consortium and lead PI of the New England Precision Medicine Consortium as part of the NIH All of Us Research Program. He is also co-Chair of the Cross-Disorder Workgroup of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC). Dr. Smoller is an author of more than 600 scientific publications and is also the author of The Other Side of Normal (HarperCollins/William Morrow, 2012).

Co-Investigator

Dr. Lucia Sobrin is a full-time clinician scientist with Mass Eye and Ear's Retina and Uveitis Services. She has unique expertise diagnosing and treating rare and complicated eye disorders that affect the middle (uvea) and back (retina) portions of the eye. She has a specific clinical interest in the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune retinopathy and cancer-associated retinopathy.  She also serves as Director of the Morse Laser Center.

After obtaining her medical degree from the University Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Sobrin completed her ophthalmology residency training at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. She then completed a medical and surgical retina fellowship at Mass. Eye and Ear followed by a uveitis and ocular immunology fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institute. In 2006, she became one of the Department's first Harvard Vision Clinical Scientist Research Program (K12) recipients and later received her Master of Public Health Degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Sobrin shares her in-depth knowledge of rare and complex cases with uveitis and retina fellows as well as ophthalmology residents. She also co-directs Mass Eye and Ear's Uveitis Fellowship Program.

Operations team

Program Director and Director Research Systems

Natalie Boutin is Program Director at the Mass General Brigham Biobank and Director of Research Systems at Mass General Brigham Personalized Medicine. In this dual capacity, Ms. Boutin is responsible for the Mass General Brigham Biobank’s operations and its information technology infrastructure. Ms. Boutin also oversees systems that drive clinical and research genomics at Mass General Brigham Personalized Medicine.  Ms. Boutin has over twenty-five years of experience driving large and complex business and technology projects. She has served as Program Director driving enrollment and data management for large NIH-funded research program such as the All of Us Research Program and the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) study. Ms. Boutin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College and a Master of Business Administration from the Isenberg School of Business. 

Genetic Counselor 

Ms. Perez is a genetic counselor and project manager at Brigham and Women’s Hospital working with the Genomes2People team. Before becoming a genetic counselor, she worked as a research assistant for the Mass General Brigham Biobank for 18 months where she recruited patients, assisted with data management, and expanded clinic recruitment sites. Her current role includes returning unanticipated medically actionable results to biobank participants, coordinating with the eMERGE consortium, and managing other evolving projects within the Genomes2People translational research group. 

Project Manager 

Ms. Tchamitchian graduated from Clark University with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science in 2011 and received her Master of Arts in Biology in 2013.  As a project manager, Ms. Tchamitchian helps manage operations, compliance, training, data management, recruitment activities, project development, and supports collaborating investigators and recruitment teams. 

Project Manager 

Ms. Trujillo graduated from the University of South Florida in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health with a concentration in Disaster Management. She began her research career at Moffitt Cancer Canter in Tampa, Florida where she gained 7 years of study coordination and 2 years of management experience; predominantly in gastrointestinal related diseases.  As the Project Manager at Massachusetts General Hospital, Mass Eye and Ear, and Chelsea HealthCare Center, Ms. Trujillo helps manage operations, training, research activities, and provides a boot on the ground approach to managing the talented team of research enrollment coordinators

Sr. Project Manager 

 Ms. Waters is a Senior Project Manager and Social Worker with over 15 years of experience in public health and social work. She holds a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University.  With expertise in clinical research, policy development, and community engagement, Leslie has successfully led diverse teams in executing clinical research program initiatives that reduce health disparities, and strategies that support underserved populations and promote overall community well-being. Leslie understands the importance of diversity and draws on her social work and research experience to positively impact the healthcare landscape. Ms. Waters has previously managed research initiatives at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, NY, and Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. where she ensured that clinical research programs were culturally competent, sustainable, and impactful.

Throughout her career, Ms. Waters received the Dean Scholar Award, Alpha Chi National College Honor Society induction, the Dorothy Height Academic Scholar Award, the Glen Glitzer Excellence in Policy Analysis Award, and the Outstanding Dedication to Research Award.

Research Coordinator

As a research coordinator, Ms. Rendon is responsible for recruiting and consenting participants to the Mass General Brigham Biobank as well as engaging participants in discussions on the purpose of broad-based genetic research.

Research Coordinator 

As a research coordinator, Ms. Dal Bello is responsible for recruiting and taking participants through the consenting process for the Mass General Brigham Biobank, as well as engaging participants in discussion of the purpose of broad-based genetic research.

Research Coordinator 

Kyler Berlind graduated from Tufts University in 2019 with a major in Biology. As a research coordinator at Mass General Brigham Biobank, he holds conversations with a diverse array of patients about the science and utility behind broad genetic research programs. He also maintains clinical relationships and helps to manage biobank data and operations.

Research Coordinator 

Abby Kate graduated from the University of Vermont in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. As a Research Enrollment Coordinator, she engages with patients, educates on broad-based genetic research, and manages clinic relationships. 

Research Coordinator 

Nina Nguyen graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Psychology. As a research coordinator, Nina is responsible for patient recruitment and engaging in discussions to educate patients on the purpose of broad-based genetic research. With her passion for genetic counseling, she supports GCs in returning genetic results.

Research Coordinator  

Emma graduated from Northeastern University in 2024 with a degree in Biology and a minor in Psychology. In her role as a research enrollment coordinator, she interacts with a diverse range of patients, educating them on the importance of broad-based genetic research and guiding them through the consenting process for the Mass General Brigham Biobank. Emma is now focused on pursuing Genetic Counseling Programs to further her career goal of becoming a genetic counselor.

Research Coordinator

Juliana earned her MD from Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia. Currently, she serves as a Senior Research Coordinator for the Mass General Brigham Biobank. In this role, Juliana actively recruits patients from diverse backgrounds, aiming to increase research participation among historically underrepresented communities. She also educates these individuals about the significance and profound impact of genetic research within the scientific community. Additionally, Juliana supports office operations and contributes to clinic expansion efforts.

Research Coordinator 

Pedro Diaz was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He is a Research Coordinator II and holds a professional degree in Dentistry (1991) as well as a postgraduate degree in Oral and Reconstructive Implantology from the Center for Dental Research and Studies (CIEO) (2009).

Pedro plays a pivotal role in recruiting participants and obtaining their consent for the Mass General Brigham Biobank at Brookside Community Health Center in Jamaica Plain. He is deeply passionate about his work with the Biobank, as its mission to build a large and diverse databank aligns with his commitment to advancing biomedical research in populations that are often underrepresented.

Research Coordinator 

Jamoson Green graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2024 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry. He is taking on responsibilities in enrollment management and data analytics, as well as patient recruitment and study collaborations. One project of note is helping create the annual MGB Biobank Newsletter for 2025. By engaging patients within the MGB system, he is committed to the advancement of medical research, improving patient care, and diversifying the Biobank population.

Research Coordinator 

Rosie O’Byrne currently attends Northeastern University where she is pursuing a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology with a minor in Communication Disorders. As a research coordinator, Rosie engages with patient education on genetic research, conducts data analysis, and works in a team environment. Rosie is passionate about the study of disease and genetics!