Atul Butte

Atul Butte, MD, PhD, is the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor and inaugural Director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at UCSF. He also serves as Chief Data Scientist for the University of California Health System (UC Health), overseeing 20 health professional schools and 10 hospitals. His research focuses on computational health sciences, precision medicine, and data-driven biomedical innovation. Butte has authored nearly 300 publications, pioneered methods for drug repurposing, and co-founded three biotech companies: Personalis, Carmenta, and NuMedii.

Education: Brown University (Computer Science, MD), Harvard Medical School (PhD in Health Sciences and Technology).

Research Interests: Leveraging big data for disease stratification, drug discovery, and precision health. Key areas include genomic analysis, electronic health record (EHR) mining, and AI-driven diagnostics. His work emphasizes open science and translational applications, such as identifying novel therapies from existing drugs and molecular data.

Articles Overview: Recent work spans computational methods for cancer drug discovery, AI applications in cardiology and emergency medicine, and multi-omics studies on stress resilience. His publications highlight interdisciplinary approaches to solving complex biomedical challenges.

Awards: Recognitions include election to the National Academy of Medicine (2015), AAAS Fellow (2023), and Obama Administration's Open Science Champion (2013).

Grants & Advising: Continuously NIH-funded for 20 years, with grants in genomic data integration, endometriosis research, and precision medicine initiatives. Advises on clinical informatics and data infrastructure modernization.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Bakar Institute and collaborates across UC Health's institutions, fostering cross-disciplinary data science initiatives.