Merle (Menachem) Fromer, PhD
- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR | Psychiatry
- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR | Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Research Topics:
Bioinformatics, Gene Discovery, Gene Expressions, Genetics, GenomicsMenachem Fromer is a computational biologist, computer scientist, and geneticist investigating the genetic causes of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, autism, and bipolar disorder. His previous work has yielded efficient algorithms for processing large datasets of protein sequences and clustering them into functional groups and families, accurate algorithms for modeling protein structures and protein-protein interactions at the atomic level, and general-purpose algorithms for finding multiple optimal solutions for widely-used mathematical models.
Multi-Disciplinary Training Areas
Cancer Biology [CAB], Neuroscience [NEU], Pharmacology and Therapeutics Discovery [PTD]The current focus of Menachem’s research is in developing computational tools to analyze (exome) sequencing data of large samples of thousands of schizophrenia patients in order to uncover genetic variation, in particular structural variation. His main projects include detecting copy number variation (XHMM software) from exome resequecing data, in addition to sequencing-based phasing of haplotype information. Furthermore, he is studying schizophrenia trios (proband and parents) that are being exome sequenced to discover de novo coding mutations ranging from single-nucleotide variants, insertions/deletions, and copy number variation. He is also collaborating with a number of researchers on developing novel tools for integrating genetic findings into known biological pathways and other functional data, for example, protein-protein interaction networks and protein family and domain information.
Physicians and scientists on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai often interact with pharmaceutical, device and biotechnology companies to improve patient care, develop new therapies and achieve scientific breakthroughs. In order to promote an ethical and transparent environment for conducting research, providing clinical care and teaching, Mount Sinai requires that salaried faculty inform the School of their relationships with such companies.
Below are financial relationships with industry reported by Dr. Fromer during 2021 and/or 2022. Please note that this information may differ from information posted on corporate sites due to timing or classification differences.
Other Activities: Examples include, but are not limited to, committee participation, data safety monitoring board (DSMB) membership.
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Verily (Google Life Sciences)
Mount Sinai's faculty policies relating to faculty collaboration with industry are posted on our website. Patients may wish to ask their physician about the activities they perform for companies.