Successfully advancing your research

Senior Director, Operations & Genomics

Jorge Marques Signes, PhD

Dr. Jorge Marques Signes is the Senior Director of Operations and Genomics at DHMRI. Dr. Marques Signes works with several genomic platforms (Illumina, PacBio, 10X Genomics, nanoString) to elucidate diverse genomic questions in the fields of health and nutrition, cancer and agrotechnology.

Jorge has served as genomics scientist focused on designing, executing and analyzing projects in collaboration with different customers. Projects were designed to address the microbiome functional characterization after diet interventions, to develop cancer molecular diagnostic based in gene expression modelling, to assemble complex genomes with whole genome sequencing and transcriptomics, or to characterize the epigenetics control of gene expression associated with cardiovascular diseases.

Dr. Marques has been successful in the study of plant-microbe interaction. Dr. Marques Signes study genomic instability as a mechanism for transcription control and the role of different DNA repair machinery proteins such as RAD51, BRCA2, RAD17 or ATR. Jorge has published in high impact scientific journals including: Nature, Nature Communications, Cell Host and Microbe and Molecular Cell.

Chief Science Officer

Nick Gillitt, PhD

Nick oversees the scientific direction of DHMRI and seeks to provide researchers with the cutting-edge research tools capable of uncovering the underlying biology associated with nutrition, health and agriculture.

In his previous role as Vice President of Nutrition Research for Dole Food Company he ran the Dole Nutrition Institute and was responsible for designing and implementing collaborative research agreements with NCRC’s academic partners to study the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables on a variety of aspects relating to human health. In addition, he managed all Doles consumer education efforts including the newsletter, brochures, DNI website and social media.

Nicholas graduated from the UK’s Newcastle Polytechnic in 1990 with a first-class honours degree in Applied Chemistry. He received his Physical/Inorganic Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, under the supervision of Dr. D.M. Davies. His post-doctoral work in physical organic chemistry was carried out under Prof. C.A. Bunton at the University of California Santa Barbara. Nicholas has co-authored over 50 papers in pier reviewed scientific journals.

Chief Business Officer

Julian Abery, MSc

A highly experienced sales, marketing and business development professional with a strong track record of formulating a vision, building, leading and motivating multi-disciplinary teams for the development and successful commercialization of new technologies and contract research services for targeted global life science markets.

Prior to joining DHMRI, Julian held senior management roles with Carterra, Amphora and Biacore, as well as running a successful consulting business.

Chief Financial Officer

Ann Wilson, CPA, MBA

Finance Director with MBA, CPA and 20+ years combined CFO, nonprofit and healthcare consulting, public accounting and financial leadership experience. Distinguished record of managing finance departments resulting in GFOA awards for excellence in both budgeting and financial reporting. Well-established ability to lead organizations to improved outcomes. Successful communicator at board, executive and operational levels. Strong reputation for professional integrity, problem solving skills, innovation and process improvement and humor under pressure.

Board member

Cory R. Brouwer, PhD

Director Bioinformatics Services Division Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Executive Director of Research, University of North Carolina System

Cory R. Brouwer, PhD, is Director of the Bioinformatics Services Division, Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics at UNC Charlotte, and Senior Research Advisor for the UNC System to the North Carolina Research Campus. He serves on the Charlotte Regional Advisory Board for NC Biotech and is also Co-Director of the Plant Pathway Elucidation Project (P2EP), an innovative public/private consortium on the North Carolina Research Campus.

Before coming to UNC Charlotte, he was leading a global computational biology group for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer out of their Sandwich, UK research campus located southeast of London. During his tenure at Pfizer, he led efforts in data integration, text mining, collaborative knowledge building and scientific software development supporting genomics and systems biology. He also was an active promoter of pre-competitive collaboration within the pharma industry and served as co-chair of the Knowledge and Information Services domain of the Pistoia Alliance, a cross-pharma precompetitive standards organization. He joined Pfizer from Curagen Corporation, where he led software projects in the area of gene expression, proteomics and toxicoinformatics. He gained his AgBio experience at Pioneer Hi-Bred, Intl, Inc. working as a computational biologist focusing on genetics and comparative genomics. He received his BS in Biology and PhD in Molecular Biology from Iowa State University.

Board member

L. Kristin Newby, MD, MHS

Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology Duke University Medical Center, Director of the Translational Population Health Research Center, Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute

After receiving her medical degree from Indiana University, L. Kristin Newby, MD, MHS, completed a residency in internal medicine and a cardiology fellowship at Duke University. Currently, she is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and Co-Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Duke University Hospital. At the Duke Clinical Research Institute, she has been engaged for many years in cardiovascular clinical trials, incorporation of biorepositories in clinical trials, and the development of integrated biosignatures of risk and response to treatment. Within the Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute, she is Director of the Translational Population Health Research Center.

Dr. Newby serves as principal investigator of the multi-tiered MURDOCK Study, and co-led its cardiovascular disease component, Reclassifying Risk for Cardiovascular Events. She is the principal investigator for the 12,400-person MURDOCK Study Community Registry and Biorepository in Cabarrus County and Kannapolis, North Carolina, led protocol development and served as an inaugural principal investigator for the 10,000-person Project Baseline Study, collaboration between Duke, Stanford, Verily Life Sciences, and Google. She is also one of the principal investigators of the coordinating center for the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program and co-chairs its Biospecimens Working Group.

She has authored more than 340 peer-reviewed publications, and was named to Thompson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers listing in 2015-2017. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the American Heart Journal and serves as the Deputy Editor of JACC: Basic to Translational Science. She is a Past Chair of the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association, an elected member of the Association of University Cardiologists and the Association of American Physicians.

Board member

Mark Spitzer, MBA

President, Castle & Cooke North Carolina LLC and Atlantic American Properties INC. Lead Mission Support Executive, North Carolina Research Campus

Mark Spitzer is the Vice President of Operations for Castle & Cooke North Carolina, the company that provides business development support for the NC Research Campus (NCRC). He assumed the position in November 2015 relocating from Westlake, California where he was Director of Human Resources for Castle & Cooke, Inc. In this position, he works closely with NCRC partners and the David H. Murdock Research Institute (DHMRI) to advance the overall development of the campus while overseeing Castle & Cooke’s real estate, recreational and hospitality operations in and around Kannapolis, North Carolina, where the NCRC is located.

Spitzer was chosen by David Murdock, the founder of the NCRC, to lead North Carolina operations because of his 35 years of professional and management roles in academia, construction and human resources. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and completed an MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He worked at both universities, and at UCLA improved collaboration and cost management efforts in concert with academic and administrative departments. He later strengthened the leadership and collaborative skills of the management and executive teams at Flying Tigers, Rockwell International and National Medical Enterprises. He also built a successful residential remodeling business before returning to corporate life in the late 1990s as director of executive compensation at Computer Sciences Corporation and later as director of human resources in the corporate offices of Dole Food Company and Castle & Cooke, Inc.