Faculty & Staff

Program Leadership

Robert Bruno, PhD
Master of Molecular Diagnostics and Precision Medicine Director

Robert Bruno earned a PhD in Molecular Medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2009 for his work on a novel prostate cancer therapeutic (galeterone) which is now in Phase III clinical trials. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in the Mammary Stem Cell Section of the Basic Research Laboratory at the Center for Cancer Research.

He came to Old Dominion University in 2013 as an Assistant Professor in the School of Medical Diagnostic & Translational Sciences within the College of Health Sciences. His current work applies biomedical engineering principles including 3D bioprinting to study mechanisms of cellular fate determination in development, cancer, and neurodegeneration.

Faculty

Harold Riethman, PhD

Dr. Riethman serves as a professor and chair of Old Dominion University (ODU)'s Medical Diagnostic & Translational Sciences program. He received his BS and MS degree from the University of Cincinnati, and a PhD degree from the University of Missouri. Following postdoctoral fellowships in genetics at Washington University in St. Louis, he began his independent career at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, with adjunct appointments in genetics and biology at the University of Pennsylvania.

His laboratory played a key role in the sequencing and analysis of subtelomeres and telomeres, complex DNA regions near the tips of chromosomes, as part of the human genome project. He joined Old Dominion University in 2015 and is currently chair of the School of Medical Diagnostic and Translational Sciences. His current research interests include structure, molecular genetics and biology of human telomeres as they relate to cancer, aging, and stem cell biology.

Patrick Sachs, PhD

Dr. Sachs is an associate professor of Medical Diagnostic & Translational Sciences at Old Dominon University (ODU). Dr. Sachs received his PhD from the Medical College of Virginia in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, where he studied adult and pluripotent stem cell biology specifically related to the regulation of the enzyme telomerase.

In his post-doctoral work, he studied the heterotypic interactions of breast cancer cells with adult stem cells in a mouse model. As a scientist for LifeNet Health, Patrick led efforts to generate induced pluripotent stem cells from normal and diseased donor cells and expanded LifeNet’s tissue engineering capabilities to include cell-centric grafts and therapies. At ODU Dr. Sachs studies the biology of stem cells, regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, cancer biology and neurobiology.