Karen E. Knudsen, PhD; Rolf Apweiler, PhD; and Ewan Birney, PhD, are highlighted.

Karen E. Knudsen, PhD, has been named director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, as well as chair of its department of cancer biology. She has been serving in these roles on an interim basis since January.

An expert in the molecular basis of hormone-dependent prostate cancer, Knudsen aims to prevent and treat the disease. Her studies that identify tumor suppressor and hormone-receptor alterations have uncovered new targets for treating advanced disease and have led to innovative, biomarker-driven clinical trials. In addition, she is editor-in-chief of Molecular Cancer Research.

Rolf Apweiler, PhD

Ewan Birney, PhD

Rolf Apweiler, PhD, and Ewan Birney, PhD, have been appointed joint directors of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory—European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), effective July 1. The European hub for big data in biology, EMBL-EBI is based on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Hinxton, UK. As part of EMBL, the institute collects, annotates, archives, and shares data from publicly funded life-science experiments with the global scientific community. Apweiler and Birney will continue to lead their respective research groups.

Apweiler is involved in many internal collaborations and initiatives, including the Human Proteome Organization Proteomics Standards Initiative. He has served on the editorial and advisory boards of several journals, and he has published more than 250 papers and book chapters.

Birney played a vital role in annotating the genome sequences of the human, mouse, and other organisms. He led the analysis group for the ENCODE project. His interests include functional genomics and statistical methods to analyze genomic information.

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