Matt Might

Last updated
Matt Might
Alma mater
Known for Precision medicine
Children3
Scientific career
Fields Precision medicine
Institutions
Website matt.might.net

Matthew Might (born 24 July 1981) is a computer scientist, biologist, educator, and public health administrator. Might serves as the director of the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute at the University of Alabama Birmingham.

Contents

Education and career

Might received his bachelor's degree in 2001 and PhD in 2007 from Georgia Tech, both in computer science. In 2008, he joined the faculty at the University of Utah, where he worked as a professor of computer science and pharmaceutical chemistry until 2017, when he moved to Birmingham, Alabama. [1] He was a visiting professor of biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School. [2]

Might is a White House strategist for the Precision Medicine Initiative, and is an advisor for the Undiagnosed Diseases Network. In 2017, he was given a Rare Impact Award by the National Organization for Rare Disorders. [3] Might is the Chief Scientific Officer of the NGLY1 Foundation. [4]

Research

Might's early work focused on cybersecurity. In recent years, he has transitioned to personalized medicine and bioinformatics. [1]

Might wrote a blog post that went viral after his son, Bertrand, was diagnosed with NGLY1 deficiency, a rare disease that was previously unknown. This widespread publicity allowed him to locate several other patients and generate data on the characteristics of the disease. [5] [6]

Might used an artificial intelligence system he was developing called mediKanren to find out that Bertrand had Pseudomonas, during a time when he was in critical condition. [7]

Personal life

Might was married to Cristina Casanova in 2003 and they had three children, before separating in 2021. Their son Bertrand passed away in 2020. His father was the president and CEO of Cable One, the cable-television division of the former Washington Post Company. [5] His ex-wife is the daughter of Manuel Casanova. [8]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Matthew Might - Home - Faculty Profile - The University of Utah". faculty.utah.edu.
  2. Carter, Kendra. "UAB - School of Medicine - News - White House strategist to lead UAB's Personalized Medicine Institute". UAB .
  3. "Matthew Might, Ph.D. - 2017 Rare Impact Award Honoree - NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders)". NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders). 15 March 2017.
  4. "Staff". NGLY1. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  5. 1 2 Mnookin, Seth (14 July 2014). "One of a Kind". The New Yorker.
  6. Longshore, Jane. "UAB - Medicine Magazine - Codebreaker: A deeply personal quest made Matthew Might a leader in precision medicine and brought him to UAB". UAB .
  7. Ross, Casey (25 July 2019). "An AI expert's toughest project: writing code to save his son's life". STAT. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  8. Casanova, Manuel (27 July 2019). "How an AI expert took on his toughest project ever: writing code to save his son's life". Cortical Chauvinism. Retrieved 27 July 2019.