Nicholas P. Ambulos, PhD

Nicholas P. Ambulos, Jr. received his PhD in Biology/Molecular Microbiology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and continued for five additional years as a post-doctoral fellow, to continue studies in Molecular Microbiology. He joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) in 1992, beginning his tenure in, what was then called the Biopolymer Core Facility, taking over as director in 1993 and building it into a genomics core facility. Through a number of different funding mechanisms, including NIH Shared Instrumentation Grants, loans, and institutional support, I have continued to equip the core with cutting edge technology required to support high impact biomedical research.

In 2011, he played a key role in establishing a new resource, the Translational Genomics Laboratory (TGL), which is now a College of American Pathologists accredited genomics lab that provides clinical investigators and physicians a source for clinically validated genomics assays for the diagnosis, care, and treatment of a disease. This provides access to resources that permit both basic and clinical genomic tools, which ultimately offers an effective pathway that supports novel discoveries, aids in translating them into clinical applications, and applying these clinical applications into routine clinical care.

Dr. Ambulos is the associate director for shared services in the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center (UMGCC), a position held since 2004. In 2016 I successfully led 7 UMGCC Shared Services through a second, 5-year NCI-CCSG (center grant) renewal.  In 2009, I successfully secured National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding (G20 grant; $7.3 million) to renovation 28,000 square feet of lab and office space to relocate many of our biomedical research cores into shared space which was completed in 2013. The UMSOM leveraged this new, shared space for core labs to establish the UMSOM Center for Innovative Biomedical Resources (CIBR), of which Dr. Ambulos serves as its founding director. CIBR represents the organizational structure for all of the UMSOM biomedical research core facilities and shared services. Dr. Ambulos is responsible for facilitating the interactions between core laboratories, investigators, and the UMSOM leadership. CIBR now provides the infrastructure that supports all of the UMSOM core facilities, and provides the infrastructure to support new NIH Shared Instrumentation grants, such as a $1.6 million grant (1S10 OD012357) for an automated Biobank freezer system with integrated robotics that is the foundation for our new University of Maryland Medicine Biorepository.

Core Facility, Shared Service, Genomics, Molecular Genetics, Sequencing, Gene Expression, Genotyping, Core Management, Pharmacogenomics, Assay Development

Nowak, R.G., Ambulos, N.P., Schumaker, L.M., Mathias, T.J., White, R.A., Troyer, J., Wells, D., Charurat, M.E., Bentzen, S.M., Cullen, K.J. Genotyping of high-risk anal human papillomavirus (HPV): ion torrent-next generation sequencing vs. linear array. Virology J. 2017; 14(1):112. PMCID:PMC5470268.

Ambulos, Jr., N.P., Schumaker, L.M., Mathias, T.J., White, R., Troyer, J., Wells, D., Cullen, K.J. Next Generation Sequencing based HPV genotyping assay validated in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded oropharyngeal and cervical cancer specimens. J. Biomolec. Tech. 2016;27(2):46-52. PMCID: PMC4802743.

Perry, C.G., Maloney, K.A., Beitelshees, A.L., Jeng, L.J., Ambulos, Jr., N.P., Shuldiner, A.R., Blitzer, M.G. Educational Innovations in Clinical Pharmacogenomics. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 2016;99(6):582-584. PMID:26875057.

Godbole, A.M., Ramalingam, S., Ramamurthy, V.P., Khandelwal, A., Bruno, R.D., Upreti, V.V., Gediya, L.K., Purshottamacher, P., Mbatia, H.W., Addya, S., Ambulos, N., Njar, V.C. 2014. VN/14-1 Induces ER Stress and Autophagy in HP-LTLC Human Breast Cancer Cells and Has Excellent Oral Pharmacokinetic Profile in Female Sprague Dawley Rats. Eur. J. Pharmacol. 734:98-105. PMCID: PMC4047216.

Shuldiner, A.R., Palmer, K., Pakyz, R.E., Alestock, T.D., Maloney, K.A., O’Neill, C., Bhatty, S., Schub, J., Overby, C.L., Horenstein, R.B., Pollin, T.I., Kelemen, M.D., Beitelshees, A.L., Robinson, S.W., Blitzer, M.G., McArdle, P.F., Brown, L., Jeng, L.J., Zhao, R.Y., Ambulos, Jr., N.P., Vesely, M.R. 2014. Implementation of Pharmcogenomics: The University of Maryland Personalized Anti-Platelet Pharmacogenomics Program. Am. J. Med. Genet. 166(1):76-84. PMCID: PMC4066997.

Shuldiner, A.R., Relling, M.V., Peterson, J.F., et. al. 2013. The Pharmacogenomics Research Network Translational Pharmacogenomics Program: Overcoming Challenges of Real-World Implementation. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 94(2):207-210. PMCID: PMC3720847.