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Shawn Gomez

Shawn Gomez

Peter Tong Department Chair and Professor

Dr. Shawn Gomez is the Peter Tong Department Chair and Professor for the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His laboratory conducts research in precision medicine, spanning molecular systems biology through translational AI applications. His group develops novel approaches for targeted therapy design, innovative diagnostics, and clinical decision support, with the overarching goal of improving patient outcomes. Dr. Gomez received his BS and MS degrees in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder and his Doctorate of Engineering Sciences in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University in New York City. He completed postdoctoral training at the Judith P. Sulzberger Columbia Genome Center and the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, where he was a Florence Gould Scholar and Pasteur Foundation Fellow.

Department

Biomedical Engineering

Contact

  • Eng.Sc.D. 1999, Columbia University
  • MS 1993, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • BS 1990, University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Systems Biology
  • Machine Learning
  • Mathematical Modeling
  • Computational Biology
  • Precision Medicine
  • Network Pharmacology
  • Translational AI

  • 2025 NIH, Chair, NIH Biodata Management and Analysis (BDMA) Study Section
  • 2017 Entrepreneurship Education Leadership Group
  • 2017 UNC-Chapel Hill, Leadership Advanced Program
  • 2015 UNC-Chapel Hill, Chancellor's Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Selection
  • 2015 NIH Director's Office, Transformative Research Award
  • 2013 UNC School of Medicine/UNC Hospitals, ACCLAIM Scholar (Academic Career Leadership Academy in Medicine)
  • 2011 UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Research Council Award
  • 2005 Pasteur Foundation Fellowship Program (14 Named as of 2014), Florence Gould Scholar
  • 2002 Pasteur Foundation, Fellow
  • 1999 Research Foundation for Mental Hygeine, Fellow
  • 1991 Graduate Researchers Program, NASA Fellow
  • 1990 NASA/USRA, Summer Conference Leader
  • 1986 National Hispanic Scholar

  • Overchuk, M., Choi, A. M., Rickard, B. P., Schnoor, B., Ehrmann, B. M., Girotti, A. W., Huang, H., O’Connell, T. M., Gomez, S., & Rizvi, I. (2026). Fluorescence imaging of photodynamic lipid oxidation reveals distinct ferroptosis sensitivity profiles in ovarian cancer cells. In Optical Biopsy XXIV: Toward Real-Time Spectroscopic Imaging and Diagnosis (p. 44-51).
  • Happ, M. F., Lindsay, C. V., Onyeji, C., Soto, A. L., Harb, M. G., Kaplan, S., Gomez, S., Blinman, T., & Tracy, E. T. (2026). Artificial Intelligence in Rare Pediatric Solid Tumor Research and Clinical Care: A Scoping Review. Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 163140.
  • Peng, X. L., McCabe, I. C., Kharitonova, E. V., Xu, Y., Zhao, R. T., Luan, C., Kearney, J. F., Kren, N. P., Hariharan, A., Lee, J. J., others,, Gomez, S., & others, (2026). DeCAF defines clinical fibroblast subtypes and multidimensional tumor-stroma crosstalk shaping prognosis and immunotherapy response. Cell Reports Medicine, 7(2).
  • Tabet, J. S., Joisa, C. U., Jensen, B. C., & Gomez, S. (2026). Kinome profiling allows examination and prediction of kinase inhibitor cardiotoxicity. bioRxiv(4).
  • Fisher-Wellman, K. H., Lutze, R. D., Kirkland, L. G., Beak, J. Y., Goyal, M., Nagalingam, R., Morrissey, S. M., Sandroni, P. B., Huang, W., Bailon, J. D., others,, Gomez, S., & others, (2026). The MEK inhibitor trametinib incurs mitochondrial injury and induces innate immune responses in the mouse heart. Science Advances, 12(28), eaeb2695.
  • Happ, M., Lindsay, C., Onyeji, C., Soto, A., Harb, M., Kaplan, S., Gomez, S., Blinman, T., Mclean, S., Akinkuotu, A., & others, (2025). Artificial Intelligence in Pediatric Solid Tumor Research and Clinical Care: A Scoping Review. In PEDIATRIC BLOOD & CANCER (p. S10-S10).
  • Jenner, M., Golitz, B., Xu, Y., Peng, X., Hossain, M. A., Drewry, D., Gomez, S., & Yeh, J. J. (2025). Patient-derived cell line and organoid drug screening identifies synergistic PLK1 inhibitor in combination with senolytic ABT-263 for pancreatic cancer. Cancer Research, 85(8-1), 5997-5997.
  • Overchuk, M., Choi, A. M., Rickard, B. P., Schnoor, B., Ehrmann, B. M., Girotti, A. W., Zaharoff, D. A., Huang, H., O’Connell, T. M., Gomez, S., & others, (2025). Photodynamic therapy simultaneously induces ferroptosis-and apoptosis-like lipid signatures in ovarian cancer cells. Cell Death & Disease.
  • Chen, K. A., Gartner, V., Darlington, K. C., Silverstein, S. R., Kennedy Ng, M. M., Butler, L., Avalos, K., Nishiyama, N. C., Joisa, C. U., Schaner, M. R., Gomez, S., & others, (2025). Post-operative Crohn’s Disease Recurrence and Infectious Complications: A Transcriptomic Analysis. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 70(1), 203-214.
  • Sutcliffe, M. D., Mott, K. R., Okumu, D. O., East, M. P., Johnson, G. L., Gomez, S., Elston, T. C., & Perou, C. M. (2025). Survival and response modeling using diverse mouse mammary tumor models. Cancer Research, 85(8-1), 2394-2394.