Lara Muffley

Lara Muffley’s work as Director of Program Operations for three scientific centers within the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine (BBI) exemplifies excellence in academic collaboration. She facilitates invaluable cooperative research among hundreds of scientists throughout the United States and internationally.

The three centers Lara leads – the Center for the Multiplex Assessment of Phenotype (CMAP), the Center for Actionable Variant Analysis (CAVA), and the Atlas of Variant Effects Alliance (AVE) – are pivotal to research related to the interpretation and analysis of human genetic variants. CMAP and CAVA are NIH-funded centers focused on technology development and data generation for understanding the effects of genetic variation.

Lara tracks research progress and milestones, as well as provides reporting to the funding agencies for all three entities. Overall, Lara’s singular ability to collaborate and coordinate with researchers and clinicians across the UW Centers and internationally helps leverage variant effect data to have a massive impact on our ability to practice precision medicine. The AVE Alliance is an international collaboration advancing the generation, organization, and use of variant effect data from human and pathogen genes to inform human disease. Its organizations include: UW Department of Genome Sciences, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Lara also is a key influencer with the Alliance’s funders, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, AstraZeneca, and Google. According to Dr. Matthew Hurles, Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the U.K.-based world leader in genomics research:

 
Lara’s efforts building that “strong global community” reflects her more than 20 years of management experience. She joined the University of Washington 30 years ago in 1995, after completing a Bachelor’s Degree at the University of North Carolina. At the UW, she first joined the Department of Dermatology; from 2003 to 2019, Lara served as a Research Scientist and Lab Manager for the Department of Surgery within UW Medicine. She also held the position of Assistant to the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education in the Office of Research and Graduate Education, before joining Genome Sciences Department and the BBI to advance NIH-funded centers and the AVE Alliance.

In 2024, Lara was promoted to Director of Program Operations, a role in which she coordinates across our large research groups at UW as well as growing the AVE community. As one of Lara’s two supervisors (the other being Dr. Doug Fowler of the Department of Genome Sciences),

I can attest that Lara’s widely recognized success in these roles is based on her extraordinary gifts and professional talents in five areas: Team Building, Active Listening, Process Improvement, Program Management, and Research Collaboration.

Tell us why you are nominating this individual

I am nominating Lara because of her extraordinary organizational, communications, and networking skills. With a collaborative spirit, robust background in program management, and a deep understanding of cell and molecular biology, Lara is adept at coordinating complex projects and aligning multidisciplinary teams toward common goals. Moreover, she has the unique ability to work closely and effectively with individuals in the academic, corporate, government, and non-profit sectors to foster collaborative relationships that accomplish mutual objectives.

More than anyone I have encountered in my 18 years at the University of Washington, Lara has demonstrated the unique talent to convene individuals with diverse backgrounds, while remaining courteous and respectful. She has helped bring international recognition to BBI, but also to the UW Department of Genome Sciences and to the University at large.

One of the greatest examples of her success is the global Atlas of Variant Effects (AVE) Alliance, where her ability to foster positive team dynamics and leverage organizational skills advance BBI’s precision medicine mission of interpreting the landscape of human genetic variation. The Alliance was loosely created at a meeting BBI hosted in 2020 with 25 individuals from four countries. Upon assuming responsibility for its administration later in 2020, she commenced in bringing a more formal structure to it.

She has organized and facilitated the Alliance’s four work streams, which are essential to realize the goals of the Alliance in key scientific areas. Lara has helped set standards for each work stream, providing tools, and disseminating information and research progress reports. Each has a strategic plan, two leaders and several participants. Lara organizes and facilitates meetings of the members. Moreover, she has contributed substantively to several papers on the Alliance and its work published in peer-reviewed journals.

Moreover, under Lara’s guidance, the Alliance has grown to over 700 members in more than 40 countries. It is the largest group in the world creating an atlas of genetic variant effects to help clinicians understand and develop specialized treatments for patients. The Alliance holds an annual symposium and, since 2020, Lara has co-organized and co-facilitated the conferences with host committees in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. The 2025 symposium will be held in Barcelona, Spain.

The host committee for the Barcelona symposium is led by Benedetta Bolognesi, Group Leader at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia. She writes:

What makes this nominee worthy of the DSA?

With a collaborative spirit, robust program management, and a deep understanding of cell and molecular biology, Lara is adept at coordinating complex projects and aligning multidisciplinary teams toward common goals. She has the skills and abilities to collaborate effectively with researchers and faculty members to meet – or exceed – challenging goals and deadlines. In addition, she enables students and trainees to be successful through greater participation in contributions to peer-reviewed papers. She also effectively holds participants accountable to their commitments, including me, through diplomatic words and respectful actions.

Among her contributions that impacted BBI and the University’s larger community are the extraordinary collaborations she has facilitated with the National Institutes of Health. As we all recognize, NIH is one of the University’s most important stakeholders for both research and funding. In his most recent performance evaluation of Lara, Dr. Fowler commented on her achievements in building collaborative partnerships with NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI):

 
Specifically, Lara manages the work of these UW-based centers by providing organizational infrastructure and support, organizing, co-chairing, and facilitating meetings, running executive-level strategic planning sessions, on-boarding new members, crafting annual reports, and coordinating activities across these centers’ collaborative research. She uses her exceptional skills in program and project management, basic science and translational research, communications, process improvement, and building positive team dynamics, enabling these centers to accomplish far more than otherwise expected.

In addition, Lara has participated in numerous NHGRI national meetings and conferences, thereby not only enhancing BBI’s visibility, but more importantly, furthering BBI’s – and the UW’s – influence with key federal officials and staff. In 2024 alone, those conferences included: the NHGRI Research Training and Career Development Annual Meeting, where she presented a poster, “Interpreting The Landscape Of Human Genetic Variation;” and the IGVF Annual Meeting where also presented a poster on BBI’s work, “The Atlas Of Variant Effects Alliance -Advancing Functional Genomics by Engaging the Global Community.”

It was equally impressive and rewarding when earlier this year an NHGRI official specifically cited her work in awarding the rare renewal of funding for CMAP which is a highly competitive and prestigious Center of Excellence in Genome Sciences. The renewal announcement stated:

Was there anything else?

In addition to collaboration, the UW models five other values: integrity, diversity, excellence, innovation, and respect. It is without equivocation, that I can state Lara Muffley demonstrates – on a daily basis, both within and outside the workplace – all six values.

She is an “unofficial ambassador” for the University and our research program in her work with individuals affiliated with federal agencies, international organizations, the corporate sector, and others with whom she engages on behalf of BBI and the Department of Genome Sciences. Lara has earned the trust and respect of these and other colleagues. Consider the words of Dr. Cole Trapnell, a Professor in the Department of Genome Sciences, who develops new technologies allowing biologists to study gene regulation and cell-cell communication in development and disease:

 
Dr. Fowler and I, Lara’s supervisors, recognize that she is a stellar performer in every way, and enables a large and rapidly expanding portfolio of scientific work. Moreover, she is both capable of and interested in writing and serving as the PI of grants, especially to support her scientific outreach and education work. Her recent promotion to Director of Program Operations is a reflection of our recognition and appreciation of her exceptional professional skills and abilities. As a result, she is assuming a vital role working alongside us on a new $4.5 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to advance our research genetic variants.

She will collaborate on the CZI’s “Rare As One” project. This work focuses on awareness, education, and treatment of people with rare genetic diseases. This project will also benefit clinicians and individuals carrying rare genetic variants which often have unknown or poorly understood effects. I am especially appreciative that Lara is serving as the primary liaison with people affiliated with “Rare as One,” helping identify key individuals to serve in our comprehensive study.

In conclusion, Lara’s devotion and commitment to her work are exemplary and, I believe, make her an exceptional candidate for the University’s Distinguished Staff Award.

Dean Owen
Communications Director
Brotman Baty Institute