Andrea Ferreira-Gonzalez, PhD
Chair of Molecular Diagnostics Division
Professor of Pathology; Chair of Molecular Diagnostics Division
Department: Pathology
Phone: (804) 828-9564
Fax: (804) 825-4738
Email: Andrea.Ferreira-Gonzalez@vcuhealth.org
Andrea Ferreira-Gonzalez, PhD, was appointed Chair of the Division of Molecular Diagnostics in the Department of Pathology at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in July 2008. She has also been the director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at the VCU Health Systems since 1994. She received her PhD degree from the George Washington University in Washington DC in 1994, and a master’s degree in Clinical Biochemistry from the National University of Cordoba, Argentina and is board certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis as High Complexity Laboratory Director and Clinical Consultant.
Dr. Ferreira-Gonzalez is an internationally recognized expert in the field of molecular diagnostics, in the areas of genetics, oncology, precision medicine and infectious diseases in transplantation. In addition, she played a major role in shaping national policy regarding the practice, reimbursement and guideline development for molecular diagnostics and molecular genetic testing. Her publication record demonstrates well over 100 publications in peer-reviewed literature and chapters. She is sought both nationally and internationally in the scientific, health management and business development communities as an accomplished leading authority.
At the national level, Dr. Ferreira-Gonzalez is a consultant for the US Health and Human Services Department for the FDA’s Clinical Genetics Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee, Center for Devices and Radiological Health. She also serves in the Genomic Medicine Advisory Committee for the US Department of Veterans Administration. She served as a member of the Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society (SACGHS) where she was the Chair of the SACGHS Task Force on Genetic Testing Oversight and on the Personalized Healthcare Workgroup. Dr. Ferreira-Gonzalez also served as a member of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) to Health and Human Services. She has been involved in the development of clinical guidelines with the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP). She also served as President of the Association for Molecular Pathology and Chair of the Professional Relations Committee and Secretary/Treasurer for the same organization. She was the chair of the nominating Committee for the American Association of Clinical Chemistry and chair for the Capital section for the same association. More recently, Dr. Ferreira-Gonzalez served on the Department of Justice and National Institute of Standard and Technology National Commission on Forensic Sciences. She was the recipient of the AMP Leadership Award for her major contributions to the field. At the international level, she is a member of the Molecular Biology Education Committee for the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) where she has participated over the last 6 years in developing educational standards and hands on workshops on genetic testing for developing countries.
Dr. Ferreira-Gonzalez is interested in clinical translation research and the clinical implementation of new nucleic acid-based technology for patient care. This is reflected in her research and publications relating to new technology such as Next Generation Sequencing for different clinical applications. She served as a PI on several industry sponsored clinical trials for different clinical applications of devices. A number of these clinical trials resulted in FDA approval of those devices.
Dr. Ferreira-Gonzalez has a passion for molecular diagnostics education and has had an active role in the Department, Medical Center, and as an invited lecturer/course director at both national and international meetings such as College of American Pathologists, American College of Medical Genetics, Association for Molecular Pathology, American Society of Clinical Pathology, American Association for Clinical Chemistry and International Federation of Clinical Chemistry.
Clinical Specialties: Molecular Diagnostics, Molecular Genetics, Cancer
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Dr. Andrea Ferreira-Gonzalez abbreviated CV
Education
Graduate Education
PhD, Microbiology/Immunology
Graduate School of Arts and Science George Washington University
Washington, DC, 1994
Licenses & Certifications
2003-present Diplomate of American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB)- High Complexity Laboratory Director
2012-present Diplomate of the American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB)- Clinical Consultant
Selected Awards & Honors
2010 AMP Leadership Award. Given by the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) to a member that has significantly contributed to the practice of molecular diagnostics and influenced the field of molecular pathology.
2020 IFCC Award for Significant Contributions in Molecular Diagnostics. This award honors an individual who has made unique contributions to promoting and understanding molecular biology and its application in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine worldwide.
VCU Service
2024-2027 SOM Faculty Advisory Council
2022-2024 SOM Executive Committee
2020-2022 VCU Health System COVID-19 Response Task Force
2020-2022 VCU Health System COVID-19 Leadership Committee
2020-2022 VCU Health System. Healthy Workplace/Back to Campus Committee
2018-2019 VCU Task Force Genomic Core Facilities at VCU
Professional Service (outside)
- IFCC: Committee on Clinical Molecular Biology Curriculum, Chair
2018- present AACC Molecular Pathology Division. Ad Hoc Board Member
2019-present Professional Relations Committee, Member. Association for Molecular Pathology
2022-present Policy and External Advisory Core Committee. American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Member
Recent Invited Presentations
The Roadmap to Recognition of Molecular Professionals as Qualified Healthcare Professionals. Annual Meeting Association for Molecular Pathology. November 2020.
Quality Control in the era of Next Generation Sequencing. Annual meeting American Association of Clinical Chemistry. December 2020.
Applications of Cell free DNA in clinical practice. Annual meeting American Association of Clinical Chemistry. Atlanta, GA July 2021.
Solid Tumor Summit- Comprehensive genomic profiling or targeted NGS panels. GenomeWeb Summit, June 29th, 2021
Exome sequencing in Rare Genetic Disease. Qiagen Corporation webinar on demand- March 2021.
Quality Control in the era of Next Generation Sequencing. Annual meeting American Association of Clinical Chemistry, Chicago July 2022.
Molecular Diagnostics-Advanced Workshop on Principles and Practices MDx. International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC), Cappadocia, Turkey, December 2022.
Molecular Diagnostics- Introduction Course in Molecular Biology- IFCC. Turkey 2022 IFCC Cappadocia, Turkey, November 2022.
Empowering precision oncology through localized comprehensive genomic tumor profiling 2024 Oncomine World. March 21, 2024.
Selected Publications
Peer Reviewed Papers
Hegde M, Santani A, Mao R, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Weck KE, Voelkerding KV. Development and Validation of Clinical Whole-Exome and Whole-Genome Sequencing for Detection of Germline Variants in Inherited Disease. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2017 Jun;141(6):798-805.
Santani A, Murrell J, Funke B, Yu Z, Hegde M, Mao R, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Voelkerding KV, Weck KE.Development and Validation of Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Panels for Detection of Germline Variants in Inherited Diseases. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2017 Jun;141(6):787-797.
Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Mardis ER. Precision oncogenomics. Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud. 2019 Apr 1;5(2). pii: a004150. doi: 10.1101/mcs. a004150.
Yan C, Turner SA, Ferreira-Gonzalez A. Lynch syndrome-associated ultra-hypermutated pediatric glioblastoma mimicking a constitutional mismatch repair deficiency syndrome. Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud. 2019 Oct 23;5(5). PMID:31604779.
Gupta G, Yakubu I, Bhati C, Zhang Y, Kang L, Patterson AJ, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Kumar D, Moinuddin I, Kamal L, King A, Levy M, Sharma A, Cotterell A, Reichman T, Khan A, Kimball P, Stiltner DR, Baldecchi N, Brigle N, Gehr T, Sterling RK. .Ultra-short Duration Direct Acting Anti-Viral Prophylaxis to Prevent Virus Transmission from Hepatitis C Viremic Donors to Hepatitis C Negative Kidney Transplant Recipients. Am J Transplant. 2020 Mar;20(3):739-751.
Finlay-Schultz J, Jacobsen BM, Riley D, Paul KV, Turner S, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Harrell JC, Kabos P, Sartorius. New generation breast cancer cell lines developed from patient-derived xenografts. CA.Breast Cancer Res. 2020 Jun 23;22(1):68. .PMID: 32576280.
Ferreira-Gonzalez, A. Plasma PIK3CA mutation testing in advanced breast cancer patients for personalized medicine: A value proposition. J Applied Lab Medicine. 2020, 5(5): 1076-1089.
Zhou L, Zhang Y, Meads MB, Dai Y, Ning Y, Hu X, Li L, Sharma K, Nkwocha J, Parker R, Bui D, McCarter J, Kramer L, Purcell C, Sudalagunta PR, Canevarolo RR, Coelho Siqueira Silva MD, De Avila G, Alugubelli RR, Silva AS, Kmeiciak M, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Shain KH, Grant S. IAP, and HDAC inhibitors interact synergistically in myeloma cells through noncanonical NF-κB- and caspase-8-dependent mechanisms. Blood Adv. 2021 5(19):3776-3788. PMID: 3446497.
Rafferty KA, Barrie ES, Turner SA, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Jackson-Cook C, Paulraj P. Severe Graft-Versus-Host Disease Following Solid-Organ Transplant Confirmed by Chimerism Studies and Cytogenetic Analyses. Exp Clin Transplant. 2022 Nov;20(11):1031-1034. PMID: 35297330.
Boyd DC, Zboril EK, Olex AL, Leftwich TJ, Hairr NS, Byers HA, Valentine AD, Altman JE, Alzubi MA, Grible JM, Turner SA, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Dozmorov MG, Harrell JC. .Discovering Synergistic Compounds with BYL-719 in PI3K Overactivated Basal-like PDXs. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Mar 3;15(5):1582. PMID: 36900375.
Zboril EK, Grible JM, Boyd DC, Hairr NS, Leftwich TJ, Esquivel MF, Duong AK, Turner SA, Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Olex AL, Sartorius CA, Dozmorov MG, Harrell JC. Stratification of Tamoxifen Synergistic Combinations for the Treatment of ER+ Breast Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2023;15(12):3179. PMID: 37370789.
Ferreira-Gonzalez A, Hocum B, Ko G, Shuvo S, Appukkuttan S, Babajanyan S. Next-Generation Sequencing Trends among Adult Patients with Select Advanced Tumor Types: A Real-World Evidence Evaluation. J Mol Diagn. 2024 Apr;26(4):292-303. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2024.01.005. Epub 2024 Feb 1.PMID: 38296192.
Book Chapters and Monographs
Ferreira-Gonzalez A. Evidence builds for tumor mutation burden as an immunothepray biomarker. In Current Topics in Molecular Pathology. 2sd Ed. Tsongalis (ed). Elsevier 20119.
Ferreira-Gonzalez, A. Section Editor Somatic Cancer Current Topics in Molecular Pathology. 3sd Ed. Tsongalis (ed). Elsevier 2020.
Ferreira-Gonzalez A. PIK3CA and Breast Cacner. In Current Topics in Molecular Pathology. 3sd Ed. Tsongalis (ed). Elsevier 2020.
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