Benjamin M. Neale, Ph.D. Closed Now

Dr. Benjamin M. Neale, Ph.D., is a prominent scientist in the fields of human genetics, genomics, and health data science. He serves as an Associate Professor in the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), an Institute Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and a frequent collaborator of Isaac (Zak) Kohane, M.D., Ph.D..

Dr. Neale is internationally recognized for his work on genome-wide association studies (GWAS), where he has pioneered methods to understand the genetic architecture of complex traits and diseases. His team has contributed to major genetic discoveries in psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune conditions.

One of his key contributions is the leadership of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) and participation in the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC) and gnomAD (Genome Aggregation Database) projects. These large-scale initiatives aggregate and harmonize genetic data from hundreds of thousands of individuals, providing an unparalleled resource for researchers worldwide.

Dr. Neale has also advanced computational and statistical methods for analyzing genetic data at scale. His work has helped refine risk prediction models and improve the integration of genomic data with electronic health records (EHRs). In collaboration with Zak Kohane and other informatics leaders, Dr. Neale has contributed to projects that link genetic discoveries with clinical phenotypes, enabling new insights into disease biology and precision medicine.

He has published extensively in journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, and Science, and is widely cited in the biomedical research community. His leadership at the Broad Institute includes directing large collaborative efforts that combine data science, population genetics, and clinical informatics.

Dr. Neale is also an advocate for open science and data sharing, making genomic datasets publicly accessible to accelerate discoveries across the biomedical community