GA4GH welcomes new leadership

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) today announced the appointment of new Co-Leads across three major initiatives: the Implementation Forum, Discovery Work Stream, and Infectious Disease Community of Interest.

Why it matters
Genomic and health data are growing rapidly, but too often remain siloed in incompatible systems. GA4GH develops the standards that allow data to be shared responsibly and used together — a foundation for faster research, better patient care, and stronger outbreak response.
 

Leadership matters
These new Co-Leads will guide global communities of researchers, clinicians, and public health experts. Their role is to set priorities, build consensus, and ensure that GA4GH standards are practical and widely adopted. Without strong leadership, international standards efforts risk fragmentation and stalled progress.
 

New appointments

• Discovery Work Stream: David Bujold (Canadian Centre for Computational Genomics) and Miro Cupak (DNAstack), joining Nara Sobreira (Johns Hopkins University).
• Implementation Forum: Brian O’Connor (Nimbus Informatics, LLC) and Waafa Rashid, joining Mallory Freeberg (EMBL-EBI).
• Infectious Disease Community of Interest (with PHA4GE): Charlie Barclay (Simon Fraser University), Samantha Chill (Deloitte), and Nishan Katuwal (Dhulikhel Hospital / NTNU).
   

David Bujold (Data Team Lead at the Canadian Centre for Computational Genomics, and staff at the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute) builds platforms that make messy -omics data usable and shareable. At GA4GH, he has been a steady force behind metadata standards and Beacon, always with an eye on privacy and interoperability.

“The Discovery Work Stream has always been about connecting dots - between standards, projects, and people. I’m excited to help improve alignment across GA4GH and beyond so we can build a more connected and accessible future for data sharing.” - David Bujold

Link to the full press release here.