Zak Kohane

Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD

Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School
Marion V. Nelson Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School
Professor of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital

10 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA 02115

617-432-2144
Zaklab

Isaac (Zak) Kohane, MD, PhD is the inaugural Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and the Marion V. Nelson Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. He served as co-author of the Institute of Medicine Report on Precision Medicine that has been the template for national efforts. He develops and applies computational techniques to address disease at multiple scales: from whole healthcare systems as “living laboratories” to the functional genomics of neurodevelopment with a focus on autism.

Over the last 30 years, Kohane’s research agenda has been driven by the vision of what biomedical researchers could do to find new cures, provide new diagnoses and deliver the best care available if data could be converted more rapidly to knowledge and knowledge to practice. In so doing, he has designed and led multiple internationally adopted efforts to “instrument” the healthcare enterprise for discovery and to enable innovative decision-making tools to be applied to the point of care. At the same time, the new insights afforded by ’omic-scale molecular analyses have inspired him and his collaborators to work on re-characterizing and reclassifying diseases such as autism, rheumatoid arthritis and cancers. In many of these studies, the developmental trajectories of thousands of genes have been a powerful tool in unraveling complex diseases.

In 1987, Kohane earned his MD/PhD from Boston University and then completed his post-doctoral work at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he has since worked as a pediatric endocrinologist. He joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1992, serving as Director of Countway Library from 2005 to 2015 and as Co-Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics during the same period, before it became the Department of Biomedical Informatics in July 2015. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Kohane has published several hundred papers in the medical literature and authored the widely-used books Microarrays for an Integrative Genomics (2003) and The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond (2023). He is also Editor-in-Chief of NEJM AI.

Kohane is always on the lookout for like-minded “quants” who share the same goals to bring a better future for medicine and biomedical science to the present.

Current Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities
DBMI Research Areas
DBMI Courses
Identifying the Common Genetic Basis of Antidepressant Response.
Authors: Pain O, Hodgson K, Trubetskoy V, Ripke S, Marshe VS, Adams MJ, Byrne EM, Campos AI, Carrillo-Roa T, Cattaneo A, Als TD, Souery D, Dernovsek MZ, Fabbri C, Hayward C, Henigsberg N, Hauser J, Kennedy JL, Lenze EJ, Lewis G, Müller DJ, Martin NG, Mulsant BH, Mors O, Perroud N, Porteous DJ, Rentería ME, Reynolds CF, Rietschel M, Uher R, Wigmore EM, Maier W, Wray NR, Aitchison KJ, Arolt V, Baune BT, Biernacka JM, Bondolfi G, Domschke K, Kato M, Li QS, Liu YL, Serretti A, Tsai SJ, Turecki G, Weinshilboum R, McIntosh AM, Lewis CM.
Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci
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Genome sequencing reveals novel noncoding variants in PLA2G6 and LMNB1 causing progressive neurologic disease.
Authors: Borja N, Bivona S, Peart LS, Johnson B, Gonzalez J, Barbouth D, Moore H, Guo S.
Mol Genet Genomic Med
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Genetic counselor roles in the undiagnosed diseases network research study: Clinical care, collaboration, and curation.
Authors: Kohler JN, Kelley EG, Boyd BM, Sillari CH, Marwaha S.
J Genet Couns
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Longitudinal imaging history in early identification of intimate partner violence.
Authors: Park H, Gujrathi R, Gosangi B, Thomas R, Cai T, Chen I, Bay C, Hassan N, Boland G, Kohane I, Seltzer S, Rexrode K, Khurana B.
Eur Radiol
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How NFTs could transform health information exchange.
Authors: Kostick-Quenet K, Mandl KD, Minssen T, Cohen IG, Gasser U, Kohane I, McGuire AL.
Science
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Clinical application of a scale to assess genomic healthcare empowerment (GEmS): Process and illustrative case examples.
Authors: McConkie-Rosell A, Schoch K, Sullivan J, Spillmann RC, Cope H, Tan QK, Palmer CGS.
J Genet Couns
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Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors.
Authors: Mullins N, Kang J, Campos AI, Coleman JRI, Edwards AC, Galfalvy H, Levey DF, Lori A, Shabalin A, Starnawska A, Su MH, Watson HJ, Adams M, Awasthi S, Gandal M, Hafferty JD, Hishimoto A, Kim M, Okazaki S, Otsuka I, Ripke S, Ware EB, Bergen AW, Berrettini WH, Bohus M, Brandt H, Chang X, Chen WJ, Chen HC, Crawford S, Crow S, DiBlasi E, Duriez P, Fernández-Aranda F, Fichter MM, Gallinger S, Glatt SJ, Gorwood P, Guo Y, Hakonarson H, Halmi KA, Hwu HG, Jain S, Jamain S, Jiménez-Murcia S, Johnson C, Kaplan AS, Kaye WH, Keel PK, Kennedy JL, Klump KL, Li D, Liao SC, Lieb K, Lilenfeld L, Liu CM, Magistretti PJ, Marshall CR, Mitchell JE, Monson ET, Myers RM, Pinto D, Powers A, Ramoz N, Roepke S, Rozanov V, Scherer SW, Schmahl C, Sokolowski M, Strober M, Thornton LM, Treasure J, Tsuang MT, Witt SH, Woodside DB, Yilmaz Z, Zillich L, Adolfsson R, Agartz I, Air TM, Alda M, Alfredsson L, Andreassen OA, Anjorin A, Appadurai V, Soler Artigas M, Van der Auwera S, Azevedo MH, Bass N, Bau CHD, Baune BT, Bellivier F, Berger K, Biernacka JM, Bigdeli TB, Binder EB, Boehnke M, Boks MP, Bosch R, Braff DL, Bryant R, Budde M, Byrne EM, Cahn W, Casas M, Castelao E, Cervilla JA, Chaumette B, Cichon S, Corvin A, Craddock N, Craig D, Degenhardt F, Djurovic S, Edenberg HJ, Fanous AH, Foo JC, Forstner AJ, Frye M, Fullerton JM, Gatt JM, Gejman PV, Giegling I, Grabe HJ, Green MJ, Grevet EH, Grigoroiu-Serbanescu M, Gutierrez B, Guzman-Parra J, Hamilton SP, Hamshere ML, Hartmann A, Hauser J, Heilmann-Heimbach S, Hoffmann P, Ising M, Jones I, Jones LA, Jonsson L, Kahn RS, Kelsoe JR, Kendler KS, Kloiber S, Koenen KC, Kogevinas M, Konte B, Krebs MO, Landén M, Lawrence J, Leboyer M, Lee PH, Levinson DF, Liao C, Lissowska J, Lucae S, Mayoral F, McElroy SL, McGrath P, McGuffin P, McQuillin A, Medland SE, Mehta D, Melle I, Milaneschi Y, Mitchell PB, Molina E, Morken G, Mortensen PB, Müller-Myhsok B, Nievergelt C, Nimgaonkar V, Nöthen MM, O'Donovan MC, Ophoff RA, Owen MJ, Pato C, Pato MT, Penninx BWJH, Pimm J, Pistis G, Potash JB, Power RA, Preisig M, Quested D, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Reif A, Ribasés M, Richarte V, Rietschel M, Rivera M, Roberts A, Roberts G, Rouleau GA, Rovaris DL, Rujescu D, Sánchez-Mora C, Sanders AR, Schofield PR, Schulze TG, Scott LJ, Serretti A, Shi J, Shyn SI, Sirignano L, Sklar P, Smeland OB, Smoller JW, Sonuga-Barke EJS, Spalletta G, Strauss JS, Swiatkowska B, Trzaskowski M, Turecki G, Vilar-Ribó L, Vincent JB, Völzke H, Walters JTR, Shannon Weickert C, Weickert TW, Weissman MM, Williams LM, Wray NR, Zai CC, Ashley-Koch AE, Beckham JC, Hauser ER, Hauser MA, Kimbrel NA, Lindquist JH, McMahon B, Oslin DW, Qin X, Agerbo E, Børglum AD, Breen G, Erlangsen A, Esko T, Gelernter J, Hougaard DM, Kessler RC, Kranzler HR, Li QS, Martin NG, McIntosh AM, Mors O, Nordentoft M, Olsen CM, Porteous D, Ursano RJ, Wasserman D, Werge T, Whiteman DC, Bulik CM, Coon H, Demontis D, Docherty AR, Kuo PH, Lewis CM, Mann JJ, Rentería ME, Smith DJ, Stahl EA, Stein MB, Streit F, Willour V, Ruderfer DM.
Biol Psychiatry
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Sex-Dependent Shared and Nonshared Genetic Architecture Across Mood and Psychotic Disorders.
Authors: Blokland GAM, Grove J, Chen CY, Cotsapas C, Tobet S, Handa R, St Clair D, Lencz T, Mowry BJ, Periyasamy S, Cairns MJ, Tooney PA, Wu JQ, Kelly B, Kirov G, Sullivan PF, Corvin A, Riley BP, Esko T, Milani L, Jönsson EG, Palotie A, Ehrenreich H, Begemann M, Steixner-Kumar A, Sham PC, Iwata N, Weinberger DR, Gejman PV, Sanders AR, Buxbaum JD, Rujescu D, Giegling I, Konte B, Hartmann AM, Bramon E, Murray RM, Pato MT, Lee J, Melle I, Molden E, Ophoff RA, McQuillin A, Bass NJ, Adolfsson R, Malhotra AK, Martin NG, Fullerton JM, Mitchell PB, Schofield PR, Forstner AJ, Degenhardt F, Schaupp S, Comes AL, Kogevinas M, Guzman-Parra J, Reif A, Streit F, Sirignano L, Cichon S, Grigoroiu-Serbanescu M, Hauser J, Lissowska J, Mayoral F, Müller-Myhsok B, Swiatkowska B, Schulze TG, Nöthen MM, Rietschel M, Kelsoe J, Leboyer M, Jamain S, Etain B, Bellivier F, Vincent JB, Alda M, O'Donovan C, Cervantes P, Biernacka JM, Frye M, McElroy SL, Scott LJ, Stahl EA, Landén M, Hamshere ML, Smeland OB, Djurovic S, Vaaler AE, Andreassen OA, Baune BT, Air T, Preisig M, Uher R, Levinson DF, Weissman MM, Potash JB, Shi J, Knowles JA, Perlis RH, Lucae S, Boomsma DI, Penninx BWJH, Hottenga JJ, de Geus EJC, Willemsen G, Milaneschi Y, Tiemeier H, Grabe HJ, Teumer A, Van der Auwera S, Völker U, Hamilton SP, Magnusson PKE, Viktorin A, Mehta D, Mullins N, Adams MJ, Breen G, McIntosh AM, Lewis CM, Hougaard DM, Nordentoft M, Mors O, Mortensen PB, Werge T, Als TD, Børglum AD, Petryshen TL, Smoller JW, Goldstein JM.
Biol Psychiatry
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Effectiveness of a third dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for preventing severe outcomes in Israel: an observational study.
Authors: Barda N, Dagan N, Cohen C, Hernán MA, Lipsitch M, Kohane IS, Reis BY, Balicer RD.
Lancet
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Correction to: An autosomal dominant neurological disorder caused by de novo variants in FAR1 resulting in uncontrolled synthesis of ether lipids.
Authors: Ferdinandusse S, McWalter K, Te Brinke H, IJlst L, Mooijer PM, Ruiter JPN, van Lint AEM, Pras-Raves M, Wever E, Millan F, Guillen Sacoto MJ, Begtrup A, Tarnopolsky M, Brady L, Ladda RL, Sell SL, Nowak CB, Douglas J, Tian C, Ulm E, Perlman S, Drack AV, Chong K, Martin N, Brault J, Brokamp E, Toro C, Gahl WA, Macnamara EF, Wolfe L, Waisfisz Q, Zwijnenburg PJG, Ziegler A, Barth M, Smith R, Ellingwood S, Gaebler-Spira D, Bakhtiari S, Kruer MC, van Kampen AHC, Wanders RJA, Waterham HR, Cassiman D, Vaz FM.
Genet Med
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