Mónica Muñoz Torres, PhD

Professional Titles

• Associate Professor

Recognitions

• Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Sciences (2022)
  The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) selected 185 of the nation's brightest young scientists from industry, academia, and government to participate in the 2022 U.S. and international Kavli Frontiers of Science symposia of the NAS. A committee of NAS members selected the participants from among young researchers who have already made recognized contributions to science. Attendees of these symposia receive the designation of Kavli Fellow. The Frontiers of Science symposium series provides a forum for the future leaders in U.S. science to share ideas across disciplines and to build contacts and networks as they advance in their careers. More than 6,200 young scientists have participated since the program’s founding in 1989; to date, 323 participants have been elected to the NAS and 18 have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Research Interests

Dr. Mónica Muñoz Torres is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. With 25 years of experience in genomics research, she has dedicated her career to developing standards and software tools for analyzing and disseminating data resources in the biomedical sciences. Her expertise, education, and enthusiasm span biocuration, knowledge representation, data harmonization, and artificial intelligence. Her research is motivated by her passion for leveraging comparative genomics to advance our understanding of human health and disease. She aims to improve socio-technological practices, build research communities, and increase diversity in the genomics and bioinformatics fields through translational, integrative, and semantic data science. Dr. Muñoz Torres is passionate about enabling students and professionals from underrepresented minorities to become enthusiastic about – and engaged in – the sciences. She is a driving force in the ongoing efforts to improve diversity in representation within the genomics and bioinformatics research workforces, contributing to several initiatives to promote Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion with various organizations, such as the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health and at her home institution. Dr. Muñoz Torres Co-Chairs the Steering Committee for the NIH-funded Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI) and leads their work on Standards. Her experience in translational science, standards, data harmonization, and artificial intelligence, as well as in coordinating the development and distribution of bioinformatics resources and scientific community building across diverse disciplines, positions her as an influential lead researcher.

Publications

• Schofield P et al., GA4GH Phenopackets: A practical introduction. Advanced Genetics. 2022 doi:10.1002/ggn2.202200016
• Harris et al., BOSC 2022: the first hybrid and 23rd annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference. F1000Research 2022 https://f1000research.com/articles/11-1034
• Vasilevsky NA, et al. Mondo: Unifying diseases for the world, by the world, 2022; medRxiv 2022.04.13.22273750; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.13.22273750
• Haendel M, et al. Cancer Research Data Commons End-to-End Requirements Analysis. 2022; Zenodo https://zenodo.org/record/6167843
• NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), Monarch Overview, 2022 https://youtu.be/SuUKqG2tbx0
• Rehm HL, Page AJH, Smith L, Adams JB, Alterovitz G, Babb LJ, Barkley MP, Baudis M, Beauvais MJS, Beck T, Beckmann JS, Beltran S, Bernick D, Bernier A, Bonfield JK, Boughtwood TF, Bourque G, Bowers SR, Brookes AJ, Brudno M, Brush MH, Bujold D, Burdett T, Buske OJ, Cabili MN, Cameron DL, Carroll RJ, Casas-Silva E, Chakravarty D, Chaudhari BP, Chen SH, Cherry JM, Chung J, Cline M, Clissold HL, Cook-Deegan RM, Courtot M, Cunningham F, Cupak M, Davies RM, Denisko D, Doerr MJ, Dolman LI, Dove ES, Dursi LJ, Dyke SOM, Eddy JA, Eilbeck K, Ellrott KP, Fairley S, Fakhro KA, Firth HV, Fitzsimons MS, Fiume M, Flicek P, Fore IM, Freeberg MA, Freimuth RR, Fromont LA, Fuerth J, Gaff CL, Gan W, Ghanaim EM, Glazer D, Green RC, Griffith M, Griffith OL, Grossman RL, Groza T, Auvil JMG, Guigó R, Gupta D, Haendel MA, Hamosh A, Hansen DP, Hart RK, Hartley DM, Haussler D, Hendricks-Sturrup RM, Ho CWL, Hobb AE, Hoffman MM, Hofmann OM, Holub P, Hsu JS, Hubaux JP, Hunt SE, Husami A, Jacobsen JO, Jamuar SS, Janes EL, Jeanson F, Jené A, Johns AL, Joly Y, Jones SJM, Kanitz A, Kato K, Keane TM, Kekesi-Lafrance K, Kelleher J, Kerry G, Khor SS, Knoppers BM, Konopko MA, Kosaki K, Kuba M, Lawson J, Leinonen R, Li S, Lin MF, Linden M, Liu X, Udara Liyanage I, Lopez J, Lucassen AM, Lukowski M, Mann AL, Marshall J, Mattioni M, Metke-Jimenez A, Middleton A, Milne RJ, Molnár-Gábor F, Mulder N, Munoz-Torres MC, Nag R, Nakagawa H, Nasir J, Navarro A, Nelson TH, Niewielska A, Nisselle A, Niu J, Nyrönen TH, O'Connor BD, Oesterle S, Ogishima S, Wang VO, Paglione LAD, Palumbo E, Parkinson HE, Philippakis AA, Pizarro AD, Prlic A, Rambla J, Rendon A, Rider RA, Robinson PN, Rodarmer KW, Rodriguez LL, Rubin AF, Rueda M, Rushton GA, Ryan RS, Saunders GI, Schuilenburg H, Schwede T, Scollen S, Senf A, Sheffield NC, Skantharajah N, Smith AV, Sofia HJ, Spalding D, Spurdle AB, Stark Z, Stein LD, Suematsu M, Tan P, Tedds JA, Thomson AA, Thorogood A, Tickle TL, Tokunaga K, Törnroos J, Torrents D, Upchurch S, Valencia ... GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare. Cell Genom. 2021 Nov 10;1(2). PubMed PMID: 35072136
• Köhler S, Gargano M, Matentzoglu N, Carmody LC, Lewis-Smith D, Vasilevsky NA, Danis D, Balagura G, Baynam G, Brower AM, Callahan TJ, Chute CG, Est JL, Galer PD, Ganesan S, Griese M, Haimel M, Pazmandi J, Hanauer M, Harris NL, Hartnett MJ, Hastreiter M, Hauck F, He Y, Jeske T, Kearney H, Kindle G, Klein C, Knoflach K, Krause R, Lagorce D, McMurry JA, Miller JA, Munoz-Torres MC, Peters RL, Rapp CK, Rath AM, Rind SA, Rosenberg AZ, Segal MM, Seidel MG, Smedley D, Talmy T, Thomas Y, Wiafe SA, Xian J, Yüksel Z, Helbig I, Mungall CJ, Haendel MA, Robinson PN. The Human Phenotype Ontology in 2021. Nucleic Acids Res. 2021 Jan 8;49(D1):D1207-D1217. PubMed PMID: 33264411
• Reese JT, Unni D, Callahan TJ, Cappelletti L, Ravanmehr V, Carbon S, Shefchek KA, Good BM, Balhoff JP, Fontana T, Blau H, Matentzoglu N, Harris NL, Munoz-Torres MC, Haendel MA, Robinson PN, Joachimiak MP, Mungall CJ. KG-COVID-19: A Framework to Produce Customized Knowledge Graphs for COVID-19 Response. Patterns (N Y). 2021 Jan 8;2(1):100155. PubMed PMID: 33196056
• Stefancsik R, Balhoff JP, Balk MA, Ball RL, Bello SM, Caron AR, Chesler EJ, de Souza V, Gehrke S, Haendel M, Harris LW, Harris NL, Ibrahim A, Koehler S, Matentzoglu N, McMurry JA, Mungall CJ, Munoz-Torres MC, Putman T, Robinson P, Smedley D, Sollis E, Thessen AE, Vasilevsky N, Walton DO, Osumi-Sutherland D. The Ontology of Biological Attributes (OBA)-computational traits for the life sciences. Mamm Genome. 2023 Sep;34(3):364-378. PubMed PMID: 37076585
• Matentzoglu N, Balhoff JP, Bello SM, Bizon C, Brush M, Callahan TJ, Chute CG, Duncan WD, Evelo CT, Gabriel D, Graybeal J, Gray A, Gyori BM, Haendel M, Harmse H, Harris NL, Harrow I, Hegde HB, Hoyt AL, Hoyt CT, Jiao D, Jiménez-Ruiz E, Jupp S, Kim H, Koehler S, Liener T, Long Q, Malone J, McLaughlin JA, McMurry JA, Moxon S, Munoz-Torres MC, Osumi-Sutherland D, Overton JA, Peters B, Putman T, Queralt-Rosinach N, Shefchek K, Solbrig H, Thessen A, Tudorache T, Vasilevsky N, Wagner AH, Mungall CJ. A Simple Standard for Sharing Ontological Mappings (SSSOM). Database (Oxford). 2022 May 25;2022. PubMed PMID: 35616100
• Dhombres F, Morgan P, Chaudhari BP, Filges I, Sparks TN, Lapunzina P, Roscioli T, Agarwal U, Aggarwal S, Beneteau C, Cacheiro P, Carmody LC, Collardeau-Frachon S, Dempsey EA, Dufke A, Duyzend MH, El Ghosh M, Giordano JL, Glad R, Grinfelde I, Iliescu DG, Ladewig MS, Munoz-Torres MC, Pollazzon M, Radio FC, Rodo C, Silva RG, Smedley D, Sundaramurthi JC, Toro S, Valenzuela I, Vasilevsky NA, Wapner RJ, Zemet R, Haendel MA, Robinson PN. Prenatal phenotyping: A community effort to enhance the Human Phenotype Ontology. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2022 Jun;190(2):231-242. PubMed PMID: 35872606
• Jacobsen JOB, Baudis M, Baynam GS, Beckmann JS, Beltran S, Buske OJ, Callahan TJ, Chute CG, Courtot M, Danis D, Elemento O, Essenwanger A, Freimuth RR, Gargano MA, Groza T, Hamosh A, Harris NL, Kaliyaperumal R, Lloyd KCK, Khalifa A, Krawitz PM, Köhler S, Laraway BJ, Lehväslaiho H, Matalonga L, McMurry JA, Metke-Jimenez A, Mungall CJ, Munoz-Torres MC, Ogishima S, Papakonstantinou A, Piscia D, Pontikos N, Queralt-Rosinach N, Roos M, Sass J, Schofield PN, Seelow D, Siapos A, Smedley D, Smith LD, Steinhaus R, Sundaramurthi JC, Swietlik EM, Thun S, Vasilevsky NA, Wagner AH, Warner JL, Weiland C, Haendel MA, Robinson PN. The GA4GH Phenopacket schema defines a computable representation of clinical data. Nat Biotechnol. 2022 Jun;40(6):817-820. PubMed PMID: 35705716
• Caufield JH, Putman T, Schaper K, Unni DR, Hegde H, Callahan TJ, Cappelletti L, Moxon SAT, Ravanmehr V, Carbon S, Chan LE, Cortes K, Shefchek KA, Elsarboukh G, Balhoff J, Fontana T, Matentzoglu N, Bruskiewich RM, Thessen AE, Harris NL, Munoz-Torres MC, Haendel MA, Robinson PN, Joachimiak MP, Mungall CJ, Reese JT. KG-Hub-building and exchanging biological knowledge graphs. Bioinformatics. 2023 Jul 1;39(7). PubMed PMID: 37389415
• Danis D, Jacobsen JOB, Wagner AH, Groza T, Beckwith MA, Rekerle L, Carmody LC, Reese J, Hegde H, Ladewig MS, Seitz B, Munoz-Torres M, Harris NL, Rambla J, Baudis M, Mungall CJ, Haendel MA, Robinson PN. Phenopacket-tools: Building and validating GA4GH Phenopackets. PLoS One. 2023;18(5):e0285433. PubMed PMID: 37196000
• Ladewig MS, Jacobsen JOB, Wagner AH, Danis D, El Kassaby B, Gargano M, Groza T, Baudis M, Steinhaus R, Seelow D, Bechrakis NE, Mungall CJ, Schofield PN, Elemento O, Smith L, McMurry JA, Munoz-Torres M, Haendel MA, Robinson PN. GA4GH Phenopackets: A Practical Introduction. Adv Genet (Hoboken). 2023 Mar;4(1):2200016. PubMed PMID: 36910590
• Shefchek KA, Harris NL, Gargano M, Matentzoglu N, Unni D, Brush M, Keith D, Conlin T, Vasilevsky N, Zhang XA, Balhoff JP, Babb L, Bello SM, Blau H, Bradford Y, Carbon S, Carmody L, Chan LE, Cipriani V, Cuzick A, Della Rocca M, Dunn N, Essaid S, Fey P, Grove C, Gourdine JP, Hamosh A, Harris M, Helbig I, Hoatlin M, Joachimiak M, Jupp S, Lett KB, Lewis SE, McNamara C, Pendlington ZM, Pilgrim C, Putman T, Ravanmehr V, Reese J, Riggs E, Robb S, Roncaglia P, Seager J, Segerdell E, Similuk M, Storm AL, Thaxon C, Thessen A, Jacobsen JOB, McMurry JA, Groza T, Köhler S, Smedley D, Robinson PN, Mungall CJ, Haendel MA, Munoz-Torres MC, Osumi-Sutherland D. The Monarch Initiative in 2019: an integrative data and analytic platform connecting phenotypes to genotypes across species. Nucleic Acids Res. 2020 Jan 8;48(D1):D704-D715. PubMed PMID: 31701156
• Putman TE, Schaper K, Matentzoglu N, Rubinetti VP, Alquaddoomi FS, Cox C, Caufield JH, Elsarboukh G, Gehrke S, Hegde H, Reese JT, Braun I, Bruskiewich RM, Cappelletti L, Carbon S, Caron AR, Chan LE, Chute CG, Cortes KG, De Souza V, Fontana T, Harris NL, Hartley EL, Hurwitz E, Jacobsen JOB, Krishnamurthy M, Laraway BJ, McLaughlin JA, McMurry JA, Moxon SAT, Mullen KR, O'Neil ST, Shefchek KA, Stefancsik R, Toro S, Vasilevsky NA, Walls RL, Whetzel PL, Osumi-Sutherland D, Smedley D, Robinson PN, Mungall CJ, Haendel MA, Munoz-Torres MC. The Monarch Initiative in 2024: an analytic platform integrating phenotypes, genes and diseases across species. Nucleic Acids Res. 2024 Jan 5;52(D1):D938-D949. PubMed PMID: 38000386
• Munoz-Torres M, Carbon S. Get GO! Retrieving GO Data Using AmiGO, QuickGO, API, Files, and Tools. Methods Mol Biol. 2017;1446:149-160. PubMed PMID: 27812941
• Gourdine JF, Brush MH, Vasilevsky NA, Shefchek K, Köhler S, Matentzoglu N, Munoz-Torres MC, McMurry JA, Zhang XA, Robinson PN, Haendel MA. Representing glycophenotypes: semantic unification of glycobiology resources for disease discovery. Database (Oxford). 2019 Jan 1;2019. PubMed PMID: 31735951
• Carmody LC, Gargano MA, Toro S, Vasilevsky NA, Adam MP, Blau H, Chan LE, Gomez-Andres D, Horvath R, Kraus ML, Ladewig MS, Lewis-Smith D, Lochmüller H, Matentzoglu NA, Munoz-Torres MC, Schuetz C, Seitz B, Similuk MN, Sparks TN, Strauss T, Swietlik EM, Thompson R, Zhang XA, Mungall CJ, Haendel MA, Robinson PN. The Medical Action Ontology: A tool for annotating and analyzing treatments and clinical management of human disease. Med. 2023 Dec 8;4(12):913-927.e3. PubMed PMID: 37963467
• Gargano MA, Matentzoglu N, Coleman B, Addo-Lartey EB, Anagnostopoulos AV, Anderton J, Avillach P, Bagley AM, Bakštein E, Balhoff JP, Baynam G, Bello SM, Berk M, Bertram H, Bishop S, Blau H, Bodenstein DF, Botas P, Boztug K, Cady J, Callahan TJ, Cameron R, Carbon SJ, Castellanos F, Caufield JH, Chan LE, Chute CG, Cruz-Rojo J, Dahan-Oliel N, Davids JR, de Dieuleveult M, de Souza V, de Vries BBA, de Vries E, DePaulo JR, Derfalvi B, Dhombres F, Diaz-Byrd C, Dingemans AJM, Donadille B, Duyzend M, Elfeky R, Essaid S, Fabrizzi C, Fico G, Firth HV, Freudenberg-Hua Y, Fullerton JM, Gabriel DL, Gilmour K, Giordano J, Goes FS, Moses RG, Green I, Griese M, Groza T, Gu W, Guthrie J, Gyori B, Hamosh A, Hanauer M, Hanušová K, He YO, Hegde H, Helbig I, Holasová K, Hoyt CT, Huang S, Hurwitz E, Jacobsen JOB, Jiang X, Joseph L, Keramatian K, King B, Knoflach K, Koolen DA, Kraus ML, Kroll C, Kusters M, Ladewig MS, Lagorce D, Lai MC, Lapunzina P, Laraway B, Lewis-Smith D, Li X, Lucano C, Majd M, Marazita ML, Martinez-Glez V, McHenry TH, McInnis MG, McMurry JA, Mihulová M, Millett CE, Mitchell PB, Moslerová V, Narutomi K, Nematollahi S, Nevado J, Nierenberg AA, Cajbiková NN, Nurnberger JI Jr, Ogishima S, Olson D, Ortiz A, Pachajoa H, Perez de Nanclares G, Peters A, Putman T, Rapp CK, Rath A, Reese J, Rekerle L, Roberts AM, Roy S, Sanders SJ, Schuetz C, Schulte EC, Schulze TG, Schwarz M, Scott K, Seelow D, Seitz B, Shen Y, Similuk MN, Simon ES, Singh B, Smedley D, Smith CL, Smolinsky JT, Sperry S, Stafford E, Stefancsik R, Steinhaus R, Strawbridge R, Sundaramurthi JC, Talapova P, Tenorio Castano JA, Tesner P, Thomas RH, Thurm A, Turnovec M, van Gijn ME, Vasilevsky NA, Vlcková M, Walden A, Wang K, Wapner R, Ware JS, Wiafe AA, Wiafe SA, Wiggins LD, Williams AE, Wu C, Wyrwoll MJ, Xiong H, Yalin N, Yamamoto Y, Yatham LN, Yocum AK, Young AH, Yüksel Z, Zandi PP, Zankl A, Zarante I, Zvolský M, Toro S, Carmody LC, Harris NL, Munoz-Torres MC, Danis D, Mungall CJ, Köhler S, Haendel MA, Robinso... The Human Phenotype Ontology in 2024: phenotypes around the world. Nucleic Acids Res. 2024 Jan 5;52(D1):D1333-D1346. PubMed PMID: 37953324
• Toro S, Anagnostopoulos AV, Bello S, Blumberg K, Cameron R, Carmody L, Diehl AD, Dooley D, Duncan W, Fey P, Gaudet G, Harris NL, Joachimiak M, Kiani L, Lubiana T, Munoz-Torres MC, O'Neil S, Osumi-Sutherland D, Puig A, Reese JP, Reiser L, Robb S, Ruemping T, Seager J, Sid E, Stefancsik R, Weber M, Wood V, Haendel MA, Mungall CJ. Dynamic Retrieval Augmented Generation of Ontologies using Artificial Intelligence (DRAGON-AI). arXiv:2312.10904

Professional Memberships

• Health Level 7 International (HL7), Member
• Genetics Society of America (GSA), Member
• International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), Member
• Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), Member
• International Society for Biocuration (ISB), Member
• Clemson University Alumni Association, Member
• Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), Member
• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Member