Malachi Griffith, PhD

Malachi Griffith, PhD

Associate Professor

Address:
Division of Oncology
Mail Stop 8501-0029-10
Washington University
660 South Euclid Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63110

Room 10115, Mid Campus Center (lab)

Research Interests
  • Cancer informatics
  • Bioinformatics
  • Genomics
  • Precision medicine
  • Immunogenomics
Research

Dr. Griffith is Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics, and Assistant Director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine. He has more than 15 years of experience in the fields of genomics, bioinformatics, data mining, and cancer research. The Griffith lab’s research is focused on improving our understanding of cancer biology and the development of personalized medicine strategies for cancer using genomics and informatics technologies. This is accomplished by developing bioinformatics methods for the analysis of high throughput sequence data and identification of biomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic and drug response prediction. Dr. Griffith is also leading the analysis of several large multi-omics data analysis projects to discover molecular signatures relevant to cancer initiation, progression and treatment response. To date, Dr. Griffith has received over 20 competitive research awards and honors. He was named an ‘up and coming’ investigator in Genome Technology Magazine and listed in Wired Magazine’s second annual ‘smart list’ as an emerging talent. He was awarded an NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award to develop integrated analysis and interpretation methods for whole genome, exome and transcriptome sequence data in cancer. He was subsequently granted a V Scholar Career Development Award to create informatics tools for personalized neoantigen vaccines. Since then, Dr. Griffith has been a Principal Investigator on more than ten NIH grants including large collaborative platform awards (U01s, U24s), contracts, sub-awards and supplements. To date, Dr. Griffith has 139 publications with major areas of focus in precision medicine, immunogenomics, cancer genomics, biomarker discovery, sequence analysis, and alternative splicing. His lab has made substantial contributions to open source and open access resources for cancer research and personalized medicine including the creation of platforms for alternative expression analysis, regulatory region annotation, splice regulatory mutation discovery, mining drug-gene interactions, curation of functional cancer mutations, and the clinical interpretation of variants in cancer (civicdb.org and cancervariants.org). Recently, the development of algorithms and tools for immunogenomics has become a major focus of his lab (pvactools.org and pvacview.org). Dr. Griffith also leads several bioinformatics training workshops as an instructor for the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops organization, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the Cancer Research Institute.

Griffith Lab
Profiles (publications)

Biosketch

Education

  • 2010-2004: PhD in Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • 2005-2004: Molecular Biology Graduate Exchange, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
  • 2002-1996: BSc in Biology (Honors) and Biochemistry, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Academic Positions & Employment

  • present-2020: Associate Professor, Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
  • present-2020: Associate Professor, Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
  • present-2018: Instructor, Evomics (Fourth Culture LLC), United States
  • present-2018: Instructor, PR Informatics, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • present-2017: Instructor, Physalia-courses, Freie University, Berlin, Brandenburg, Germany
  • present-2014: Assistant Director, McDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
  • present-2011: Instructor, Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • present-2011: Instructor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY
  • 2020-2017: Assistant Professor (Investigator Track), Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
  • 2016-2014: Assistant Professor (Research Track), Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
  • 2014-2011: Genome Fellow, McDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
  • 2014-2011: Research Instructor, Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
  • 2011-2010: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Center, Vancouver, BC, Canada

University & Hospital Appointments & Committees

  • present-2021: Member, Biomedical Informatics and Data Science Admissions Committee
  • present-2018: Member, Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs
  • present-2018: Member, Institute for Informatics (I2)
  • present-2018: Member, Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law
  • present-2017: Member, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences
  • present-2015: Member, Siteman Cancer Center

External Committees

  • present-2021: Co-Chair, Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) – Somatic Cancer Clinical Domain Working Group
  • present-2018: Steering Committee, GA4GH
  • present-2016: Co-Chair, Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium (VICC), GA4GH
  • present-2013: Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops Organizing Committee
  • present-2012: Editor, Biostar Consulting LLC
  • 2021: Conference Chair, AACR Computational Methods for Immunogenomics and Precision Oncology
  • 2021: NCI Informatics for Cancer Research Annual Meeting Program Committee
  • 2020-2019: Cancer Genomics Consortium (CGC) Annual Meeting Program Committee
  • 2020-2019: AACR-CRUK Transatlantic Postdoctoral Fellowships Scientific Review Committee
  • 2020-2019: AACR Basic Cancer Research Fellowships Scientific Review Committee
  • 2020-2019: AACR-Cancer Research UK Transatlantic Postdoctoral Fellowships Scientific Review Committee
  • 2019, 2015: Annual Meeting Education Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
  • 2018: Discussion Leader of the Data-Driven Approaches for Precision Medicine Session, Human Genetic Variation and Disease, Gordon Research Conference
  • 2018: Methods Workshop Chair, American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting, Computational Methods and Resources for Immunogenomics and Immune Therapy
  • 2017: Member, Planning the 5-year Vision of Global Alliance for Genomics Health (GA4GH)
  • 2016: Methods Workshop Chair, American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting, Interpretation of Variants in Cancer
  • 2016: Program Co-Chair, Clinical Interpretation Knowledgebase Hackathon and Curation Jamboree, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 2015: Conference Chair, The Clinical Genome Conference, ‘Understanding Wellness’ Session, San Francisco, CA
  • 2014-2012: Member, Illumina Sequencing Experts Panel
  • 2007: Conference Chair, Discovery2Diagnostics Conference, ‘Emerging Microarrays and Technologies’, Philadelphia, PA

Awards

  • 2022: V Scholar Summit Travel Scholarship
  • 2018: V Scholar Award
  • 2009: Lloyd Skarsgard Research Excellence Prize
  • 2009: John Bosdet Memorial Fund, Graduate Student Travel Scholarship
  • 2008: NCIC and Terry Fox Foundation, Research Studentship
  • 2006: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Senior Trainee Award
  • 2005: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Doctoral Award
  • 2004: University of British Columbia, Graduate Entrance Scholarship
  • 2004: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Masters Award
  • 2004: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Junior Trainee Award
  • 2004: University of British Columbia, PhD Tuition Award
  • 2002-1999: University of Winnipeg, Student of Highest Distinction
  • 2001: Dr. Edgar Van Nuys Allen Scholarship
  • 1999: University of Winnipeg, Academic Proficiency Scholarship
  • 1996: University of Winnipeg, Special Entrance Scholarship

Other Honors

  • 2022: AACR Most Highly Cited Article Award in Cancer Immunology Research
  • 2021: V Foundation VIP Session Presenter
  • 2013: Profiled in Wired Magazine’s Second Annual ‘Smart List’ as an emerging talent
  • 2012: Profiled in Genome Technology Magazine’s Seventh Annual Young Investigators issue as an ‘up and coming investigator’

Professional Societies & Organizations

  • present-2020: ClinGen Somatic Cancer Clinical Domain Working Group
  • present-2019: Active Member, Cancer Genomics Consortium (CGC)
  • present-2019: Active Member, Association of Molecular Pathologists
  • present-2018: Affiliate Scientist Member, American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics
  • present-2016: Active Member, American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)
  • present-2016: Global Alliance for Genomics Health (GA4GH)
  • present-2015: Active Member, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
  • present-2014: Professional Member, International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
  • present-2014: Active Member, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Bioinformatics Resources Created