Michelle Giglio

Michelle Giglio, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, affiliated with the Institute for Genome Sciences. Her roles include Associate Director for Education & Outreach and Academic and Outreach Coordinator for the Institute for Genome Sciences. She previously served as Assistant Professor (2007-2015) and Associate Professor (2015-present) in the Department of Medicine.

Education:

• B.S., University of Maryland College Park (1990)
• Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1997)
• Postdoc, The Institute for Genomic Research (1997-1998)

Research interests span genomics, transcriptomics, metagenomics, and microbiome analysis, with a focus on ontology development for biomedical data standardization. She leads the Evidence Ontology project and contributes to the Ontology for Microbial Phenotypes and Gene Ontology Consortium. Her work emphasizes FAIR data principles, metadata capture, and enhancing interoperability in multi-omic research.

Recent research trends include advancing the Evidence and Conclusion Ontology (ECO), developing standardized frameworks for assay representation, and creating multi-omic data resources for the Human Microbiome Project. She also explores transcriptomic and epigenomic cell atlases in neuroscience contexts.

Scientific awards

• Maryland's Top 100 Women (2014)
• Founders Week Public Servant of the Year, UMB (2019)

Grants and collaborations include co-investigator roles in the Human Microbiome Project Data Coordination Center, Neuroscience Multi-Omic Archive, and Common Fund Data Ecosystem Coordinating Center. She advocates for data reuse and community-driven ontologies.

Labs and teams involve her leadership at the Institute for Genome Sciences, where she directs education initiatives, bioinformatics training workshops, and K-12 outreach programs like the CURE Scholars program and Maryland Microbiome Project.