Griffin Weber, MD, PhD

Griffin Weber directs the Biomedical Research Informatics Core (BRIC) at BIDMC. A result of his research in expertise mining and social network analysis is his invention of an open source social networking website for scientists called Profiles RNS, now used at dozens of universities across the country. It automatically mines large datasets such as PubMed, NIH ExPORTER, and the U.S. patent database to discover investigators' research areas and scientific networks. It then presents these connections using temporal, geospatial, and network visualizations. The software has numerous applications, ranging from finding individual collaborators and mentors to understanding the dynamics of an entire research community.

Weber is also an investigator on Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2), an NIH National Center for Biomedical Computing, for which he helped developed a web-based open source platform that enables a variety of functions, including queries of large clinical repositories for hypothesis testing and identification of patients for clinical trials. He also created the original prototype software for the Shared Health Research Information Network (SHRINE), which is a federated query tool that connects i2b2 databases across multiple institutions. More than 100 institutions worldwide use i2b2 and SHRINE to support clinical research.

Weber received his M.D. and Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University in 2007. While still a student, he became the first Chief Technology Officer of Harvard Medical School and built an educational web portal that provides interactive online content to over 500 courses. His past research projects also include analyzing DNA microarrays, modeling the growth of breast cancer tumors, and creating algorithms for predicting life expectancy.