Dr. Adam Hansen is an accomplished scientist and entrepreneur who has dedicated his career to relieving human suffering through the advancement of precision medicine. He founded and leads Geneial, a private exchange for genetic and patient-reported outcomes data. Less than two years after completion of his doctoral training, Dr. Hansen and team were awarded a $2.3M fast-track Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute. He serves as Principal Investigator, Founder and CEO and is a co-inventor of three international patent applications (pending).
During his doctoral training at Baylor under Richard Gibbs, Ph.D., at the Human Genome Sequencing Center, he led the discovery of 154 candidate Mendelian disease genes through a genocentric, query-optimization strategy for exome sequencing data of over 18,000 individuals. His publications from Baylor–including three as first author and two as corresponding author–have also expanded the known phenotypic spectrum of POLR2A, KIF1A, AHDC1, RCL and DDX3X-related disorders. Upon completion of his doctoral studies in 2020, Dr. Hansen was selected as a Biodesign Fellow at the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute, where he expanded his knowledge of digital health, value-based-care and new venture formation.
Dr. Hansen’s research interests are focused on identifying novel genetic causes of human disease through next-generation sequencing, elucidating the natural history of genetic disorders through registry design and patient-reported outcomes data, data standardization, Mendelian and population genetics, pharmacogenomics, and high-performance computing. He is passionate about leveraging technology to accelerate the pace of discovery, aligning incentives for data exchange, and enhancing protections for patient privacy and data ownership.
He received a Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics from Brigham Young University with minors in Computer Science, Chinese and Global Business & Literacy. He also studied abroad at Nanjing University, where he studied advanced Chinese Language and Literature, and is fluent in Mandarin. In his free time, he volunteers to teach a weekly English as a Second Language course in Sugar Land. He serves on the industry advisory board for the University of Utah Department of Biomedical Informatics, and he has been invited to speak on health equity, innovation and the importance of character in leadership.