About the Director of ArC-GEM
Ussery, left, holding ARA Scholar certificate.
Dr. Ussery is director of the Arkansas Center for Genomic and Epidemiology Medicine at UAMS. He has been working with biomedical informatics analysis of bacterial genomes since 1995.
Biomedical informatics extracts knowledge from large amounts of biological data with computers rather than in a traditional laboratory.
Dr. Ussery’s work in third-generation sequencing has some exciting potential applications for a range of emerging infections, such as his currently collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Health on a project that could lead to rapid diagnosis of the Zika virus.
On Feb. 21, Dr. Ussery was invested as the inaugural recipient of the Helen Adams & Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Endowed Chair in Biomedical Informatics.
“I can think of no one more qualified for the inaugural chair of biomedical informatics than Dr. Ussery. David brings a lot of knowledge, enthusiasm and excitement to our department.”
— Fred W. Prior, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics
“Dave Ussery is a world-class scholar whose work with biomedical informatics and comparative genomics is already giving us critical insight into the origin and treatment of disease…”
— UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D.
