Biography
Leonie Misquitta, Ph.D., is a program director in the Digital & Mobile Technologies Section of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program Branch within NCATS’ Division of Clinical Innovation, where she manages a portfolio of CTSA Program grants, including the CTSA National Center for Data to Health. Misquitta has worked for more than 20 years in biomedicine, translational omics implementation science, clinical and digital health informatics, and organizational management. She has led a variety of scientific initiatives across a wide spectrum — from developmental genetics and transgenics to large-scale genomics and biomedical informatics programs.
Before joining NCATS, Misquitta was a senior scientific advisor at the Center for Information Technology (CIT), where she managed a diverse portfolio of intramural omics and clinical medicine informatics programs and NIH-wide initiatives for standards in data science with the goal of translating harmonized data across programs to accelerate pathways for improved patient care. Prior to her tenure at CIT, she served as a program director at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in its Federally Funded Research and Development Center, where she developed multiple knowledge bases, including the Cancer Genome Atlas program and large-scale clinical infrastructures for various NIH Institutes and Centers. Previously, as a Fogarty fellow at NCI, she pioneered the techniques of gene silencing and RNA-interference in Drosophila.
Misquitta earned her doctorate in life sciences (molecular genetics) from Devi Ahilya University in India and an Executive Management Certification from Georgetown University.
Professional Interests
In addition to her cross-disciplinary translational research interests, Misquitta strongly believes in scientific and workforce equity and diversity and continues to work toward building a talent pool of interdisciplinary investigators that is practical and sustainable.