Project Manager

Jessica Leyva Rangel

Jessica Leyva-Rangel, PhD

Dr. Leyva-Rangel has been working at Boston Children’s Hospital since 2020. First, as lead technologist in the Nephrology department where she developed expertise in basic immunology and assisted with the generation and maintenance of transgenic animals and was involved in the maintenance of laboratory protocols. Then, she joined the Division of Infectious Diseases where she conducted and developed pre-clinical assays for the phase 1 clinical trial aiming to develop a Pneumococcal whole cell vaccine. Dr. Leyva-Rangel is currently the research project manager of the U19 IMPACT-CETR grant which received $25 million in funding from NIAID/NIH and will focus on developing preventive strategies against three major bacterial pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Bioinformatics Core (Core 1)

Piotr Sliz headshot.

Piotr Silz, PhD

Co-Lead

Dr. Silz is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Chief Research Information Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. He developed two novel research computing environments: SBGrid/BioGrids and Children’s Rare Disease Cohorts (CRDC). His research computing group at Boston Children’s Hospital also participates in several health informatics projects, including use of patient-level data by the 4CE international consortium to support electronic health record (EHR) data-driven studies of COVID-19. He also has vast experience in single-cell transcriptomics data analytic methods.

Dr. Silz's research profile
Liang Sun, PhD

Liang Sun, PhD

Co-Lead

Dr. Sun is the Data Science Manager in the Research Computing Division at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). His expertise encompasses a wide range of areas including single-cell RNA-seq analysis, spatial transcriptomics analysis, trajectory inference analysis, cell-cell communication analysis, bulk RNA-seq analysis, proteomics analysis, metabolomics analysis and bioinformatics software development. Moreover, he is well-versed in data visualization and integration techniques, enabling seamless incorporation of various data types such as genomics, epigenomics, and other experimental data. 

His primary research focus is on RNA-seq analysis, data visualization, and the development of web-based bioinformatics tools. Previously, at the Noble Research Institute (Ardmore, OK), he was responsible for coordinating bioinformatics and scientific software development projects. He led a team that worked on several bioinformatics projects, culminating in four publications for which he served as corresponding or first author. Currently, at BCH, he holds a leadership position in a bioinformatics team and leads a monthly Data Science seminar series from investigators across the globe.

Dr. Sun's research profile

Nonhuman Primate Core (Core 2)

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Chad Roy, PhD, MSPH

Lead

Dr. Roy is Associate Dean of Research, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Director of the Center for Airborne Infection and Transmission Science at the Tulane University School of Medicine. He is also Director of the Infectious Disease Aerobiology Program within the Division of Microbiology at the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center (TNBRC). Dr. Roy’s has maintained a vibrant research program at TNBRC for the past 18 years, including directing a coordinated Scientific Core program that has been supported extramurally over the past 14 years by the NIH’s primate research program (NIH P51 OD11041). Dr. Roy has long-standing collaborations with Drs. Kolls and Norton on multiple vaccine projects.

Transgenic Mouse Core (Core 3)

Christine Bojanowski

Christine Bojanowski, MD, MSCR

Lead

Dr. Bojanowski is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Physician-Scientist in the Section of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine at Tulane University. With a background in bench, translational, and clinical research, she has expertise in transgenic and complex mouse line development and management. Her research program focuses on mucosal immunology and host defense in the upper airway within the Center for Translational Research in Infection and Inflammation headed by Dr. Jay Kolls.