After nearly 10 years with UC Irvine, Dr. Trina M. Norden-Krichmar will step down from her role as an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics with the UC Irvine Program in Public Health, at the end of February. She leaves a footprint of important contributions.
Before entering the world of academia and making her mark at UCI, her career encompassed a wide range of areas, from working as a biochemist to being a computer programmer at IBM, the National Institutes of Health, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. While working at the Salk Institute, she was intrigued by the work that was being done at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and decided to pursue a doctoral degree in marine biology. She was awarded her PhD degree in 2009 and followed this up with two fellowships at the J. Craig Venter Institute and Scripps Research Institute where she delved into human genomics research.
By 2015, UCI came calling, and since then has focused on the application of bioinformatic tools to deepen the understanding of the mechanisms underlying disease, utilizing computational analyses of genomic, clinical, and environmental data in her research.
The Norden-Krichmar Laboratory specializes in advanced computational methods and the development of custom bioinformatics tools made available to other researchers as open-source software. She applied her expertise in bioinformatics toward understanding many human diseases, including addiction, alcohol-associated liver diseases, cardiomyopathy, obesity, longevity, and cancer. To advance the field of liquid biopsy diagnostics, her lab employed state-of-the-art approaches, such as single-cell sequencing and machine learning with genomics data from blood-based samples. With her comprehensive expertise, she became a sought-after mentor and collaborator. As such, in addition to her active role in epidemiology and biostatistics, she also held joint appointments at UCI in biological chemistry, computer sciences, and pharmaceutical sciences, as well as with the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Long Beach, Calif.
Dr. Norden-Krichmar has been an active member of the campus, including serving on the advisory board for the Genomics Research and Technology Hub (GRTH) and the UCI Research Cyber Infrastructure Center (RCIC). Her commitment to education and mentorship further shone through the development of a hands-on computational applied bioinformatics class at UCI.
Actively supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Norden-Krichmar’s impact on students and the academic community has been recognized through her strong course evaluations and accolades such as the outstanding teaching award. She has been a valued member of her home department, the Program in Public Health, and the entire UCI campus. She will stay on with UCI as an emeritus associate professor.
