Sasha Siegel joins GA4GH as Chief Product Officer

6 Mar 2025

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is pleased to welcome Sasha Siegel into the role of Chief Product Officer, based at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).

By Jaclyn Estrin, GA4GH Science Writer

Sasha Siegel has joined the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) as the organisation’s Chief Product Officer. In this role, Siegel will drive the development of GA4GH products by leading the GA4GH Technical Team and engaging with over 350 GA4GH contributors to harness the power of genomic data and advance human health outcomes.

Based at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), one of GA4GH’s five Host Institutions, the Chief Product Officer is an evolution of the Chief Standards Officer role, which was previously held by Susan Fairley, and Andy Yates in the interim. Now Siegel takes the helm, joining GA4GH’s senior leadership team, alongside Peter Goodhand (CEO) and Angela Page (Chief Strategy & Engagement Officer). 

Siegel brings a rich and diverse career background to the organisation, with experience in entrepreneurship, industry, and academia.

After earning a PhD in Allergy, Immunology, and Infectious Disease, Siegel started her career in drug discovery in malaria research before moving into the genomics space. “I want to spend my time working on tough challenges that impact marginalised communities,” Siegel said. “The problems that take a global community to solve have always been something that drives me.”

She worked in genomic surveillance to scale sequencing and data analysis to understand the spread of disease — particularly neglected tropical diseases — through populations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Siegel helped drive the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s effort of standing up both COVID-19 and malaria sequencing and surveillance capacity in Latin America, Asia, and Africa to ultimately help understand risk indicators and improve health outcomes. 

Following this experience, Siegel moved to industry to build infectious disease analytics, modelling, and surveillance capabilities as Executive Vice President at Airfinity. Her team built advanced analytics and intelligence capabilities by working closely with the life sciences industry, academia, and government to improve disease outcomes globally. She had a goal to advance operational thinking about science in an effort to translate scientific advancements into positive health impacts.

Siegel is director of Healthwave Digital Innovations, a company she founded to bring product development and industry experience to academic institutions, guiding them to build pathways to commercialise digital health products and maximise impact. She is also a Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence, where she engages with academic institutions to promote innovation and product development in science, infectious disease, and genomics. She continues to be part of the University of Bristol’s (UoB) vibrant digital health ecosystem as an Expert in Residence and Honorary Industrial Fellow in the UoB College of Medicine. 

These collective experiences have guided Siegel on her path to GA4GH where she will continue to foster innovation and product development in the genomics and health space. “We can create the connection points between academia, funders, industry, and other standards development organisations. It’s a virtuous cycle,” Siegel said. “The standards we create are foundational to progress in the clinical space and the genomics space in general.”

In her role, she will collaborate with Work Stream Leads and Product Teams to develop global standards that facilitate responsible access, use, and sharing of genomic and related health data. 

Siegel will maintain an open line of dialogue with the GA4GH community to discuss progress in product development and brainstorm solutions to existing challenges. This collaboration will ensure that GA4GH products are effective in their purpose and best positioned for implementation and uptake. Furthermore, she aims to ensure that GA4GH products make it into the translational space and will work to pursue integration of products into clinical practice.

Siegel said, “It’s my job to go out into the world and make sure that we are building the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason, and that our standards are sensible, defensible, and transparent.”

At the same time, she hopes to expand GA4GH’s international impact and become a truly global organisation with representation from communities around the world, particularly from Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. She is looking towards how the organisation can “overcome the challenges of breaking ground in new places to increase our representation and footprint.”

Siegel sees GA4GH’s role as being a facilitator of a global conversation. “Fundamentally, what standards do for any community is give them a place to start. It gives them common ground with which to communicate. If we can do that, then great science and impact will follow.”