Nazneen Aziz, PhD, has joined Phoenix Children’s Hospital as Senior Vice President of Research and Chief Research Officer.
Dr. Nazneen Aziz of Phoenix Children’s Hospital
In this role, she will establish the Phoenix Children’s Research Institute. The Institute will give Phoenix Children’s the infrastructure and leadership to expand their strategic emphasis on clinical research.
Dr. Aziz will have the responsibility to assist in the development of the strategic and operational direction of the Ronald A. Matricaria Institute of Molecular Medicine and Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in collaboration with their directors, Dr. Robert Arceci, Dr. Timothy Triche and Dr. P. David Adelson, respectively.
Dr. Aziz will have overall executive management responsibility for developing, coordinating, and stimulating research and creative activity at the Phoenix Children’s Research Institute. Her role will include enhancing external funding and ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Dr. Aziz will be working with Phoenix Children’s collaborating partners to provide the integration of the three fundamental pieces of infrastructure ─ Medical and Scientific, Genomic, and Clinical.
In her most recent position, Dr. Aziz was the Director of Molecular Medicine at the College of American Pathologists (CAP). In this role, she was responsible for initiating and guiding genomic strategies and projects at CAP, along with developing relations with key partners. During her tenure at CAP, she directed the development of the first set of laboratory accreditation standards for NGS and non-invasive prenatal screening.
Dr. Aziz is a member of workgroups at the CDC, NIST, AMP and ACMG involved in developing best practice guidelines and standards for genomic analysis using NGS testing. Dr. Aziz is also a member of the board of overseers of Marine Biological Laboratories/University of Chicago.
In her prior positions, Dr. Aziz was Vice President of Research and Development at Interleukin Genetics; Vice President of External Research at Point Therapeutics; and Director of Translational Research at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research. In her industry career, she focused on personalized medicine, biomarkers, genetic tests, and development of drugs in cancer and diabetes.
Prior to joining the biotechnology industry, Dr. Aziz was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital in Boston where she discovered and characterized the function of a new gene involved in recessive polycystic kidney disease.
Dr. Aziz received her PhD in molecular genetics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where her doctoral research resulted in the discovery of a novel mechanism of regulation of translation of mRNAs. She received her MS in biochemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her BA from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She has published extensively in the medical and scientific literature and has been invited to speak at numerous national and international conferences.
About Phoenix Children’s Hospital
Phoenix Children’s Hospital is Arizona’s only children’s hospital that is ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals. Phoenix Children’s provides world-class inpatient, outpatient, trauma, emergency and urgent care to children and families in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. As one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country, Phoenix Children’s provides care across over 75 pediatric specialties. The Hospital is poised for continued growth in quality patient care, research and medical education. For more information about the hospital, visit www.phoenixchildrens.org.
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