Babu Guda, PhD, professor and vice chair for bioinformatics research and training in the UNMC Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy in the College of Medicine, has been appointed associate dean for research development for the UNMC College of Medicine.
In his new role, his focus will be to help provide UNMC’s researchers with cutting-edge technology in the areas of computing, machine learning, AI, and research resources including site-licenses for research software packages and similar tools.
“My research itself is in this field,” he said. “In this new role, we would advocate for and help build an ecosystem of specialized hardware and AI-based software tools.
“This will enable growth in the application of machine learning and AI tools using genomics and clinical data and integrating different types of data sets to enable better health care and research.”
Dr. Guda is keen on developing an AI-driven in-silico drug discovery pipeline to help augment the basic and translational research capacity on campus. Using advanced GPU-based servers and AI-based approaches, the time and cost for virtual screening of ultra-large drug compound libraries can be brought down substantially per target. This infrastructure would mark a leap forward for translational research.
Howard Fox, MD, PhD, the senior associate dean for research and development in the college, stated “given Dr. Guda’s expertise and accomplishments, this advanced position will accelerate the growth of our research. This will be further accentuated by his working with Sajid Shahul, MD, who joined UNMC in October as associate dean for clinical research.”
Dr. Guda has been the college’s assistant dean for research development since 2020.
“This new role, and the partnership with Dr. Shahul, will allow me to build on what I’ve been working toward for the past five years,” Dr. Guda said.
Dr. Guda said he will leverage his role as the co-director of the joint Center for Biomedical Informatics Research and Innovation (CBIRI) between UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Omaha to interface with Bio Nebraska, Bio Sciences Organization of Nebraska.
“My new role in the college also will enable me to serve as a liaison between the college and the Office of Industry Engagement to work with industry partners on projects of interest to the UNMC College of Medicine,” he said.