Nicky Mulder joins the GA4GH Executive Leadership Team

15 May 2025

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is pleased to announce Nicky Mulder, of the University of Cape Town, as the newest member of the GA4GH Executive Leadership Team, serving as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors.

By Jaclyn Estrin, GA4GH Science Writer

Building on over a decade of involvement in the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), Nicky Mulder, of the University of Cape Town, has joined the GA4GH Executive Leadership Team as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors.

In this role, Mulder will help guide the strategic direction of GA4GH, alongside CEO Peter Goodhand (Ontario Institute for Cancer Research), Chair Heidi Rehm (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Massachusetts General Hospital), Vice-Chair Kathryn North (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute), Chief Strategy and Engagement Officer Angela Page (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard), and Chief Product Officer Sasha Siegel (EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute).

Mulder has been a longstanding contributor of GA4GH, having participated in early discussions to explore broad human health data sharing and shape the organisation from its inception in 2012.

She joined initial GA4GH conversations to bring greater visibility to the African genomics community, as well as to discuss expectations for integrating African genomic data into global research in a way that is equitable, non-exploitative, and supportive of the development of African research capabilities.

She has been a leading voice in ensuring the “Global Alliance” lives up to its name with truly global representation. As the lead of H3ABioNet, a Pan African bioinformatics network for the GA4GH Driver Project H3Africa (Human Heredity and Health in Africa consortium), spanning 32 institutions, Mulder has placed a strong emphasis on connecting the genomics work from the African continent to the GA4GH community.

Mulder is a Professor and head of the Computational Biology division at the University of Cape Town; is interim Director of the African Bioinformatics Institute, funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Wellcome; and served as the Principal Investigator of the eLwazi Open Data Science Platform for the Data Science for Health Innovation in Africa Consortium (DS-I Africa).

Prior to commencing her current positions, she received a PhD in Medical Microbiology and worked at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute for eight and a half years, serving as the team leader in bioinformatics services. Throughout her career, Mulder has gained a strong understanding of the need for standards, the importance of remaining internationally relevant across different contexts, and recognising where data infrastructure varies in communities around the world.

To address infrastructure gaps, she dedicated over thirteen years to capacity building: training nearly 10,000 people to enhance skills, increase visibility, and unlock the potential of genomics for health. In an effort to expand genomics for health in Africa, Mulder is helping to spearhead a network of Genomic Centres of Excellence across the continent.

Mulder said, “My job was focusing on building capacity — the data and computational infrastructure and human capacity to enable genomics research in Africa. I’ve been involved in trying to get people thinking about the bigger picture on the possibilities data provides outside of their own world of research.”

Mulder has found value in incorporating GA4GH products within H3Africa — a GA4GH Driver Project — which is one of the largest genomics projects in Africa to date focused on health discoveries. This process served as a customisable blueprint for the development of the proposal for the African-led eLwazi Open Data Science Platform, part of DS-I Africa. The eLwazi platform is almost entirely based on GA4GH tools, standards, and APIs, adapted to fit within local geographical and cultural contexts.

Mulder acknowledged the importance of two-way dialogue, bringing the African perspective to GA4GH Work Streams while also using GA4GH products to inform, strengthen, and support African-led genomic research efforts. Members of H3Africa have joined Work Streams to provide feedback on product development, and eLwazi hosted one of GA4GH’s first Assigned Experts. This intentional involvement ensures that GA4GH products and standards meet the needs of global communities across different contexts.

She is also working with the Human Pangenome Project to create an African reference pangenome graph. Mulder discussed the opportunity of contributing valuable African data and discoveries, while also exploring collective solutions to existing challenges to drive greater innovation for the community as a whole.

Mulder said, “What I would like to see is GA4GH tools embedded more in genomics across [the African] continent, particularly in the national genome projects springing out of different countries.” 

The start to a more fully global alliance also involves recognising where barriers to entry exist for engagement in low- and middle-income countries and striving to increase visibility of and access to the resources, meetings, and collaboration opportunities available through the GA4GH community.

As technology and research tools continue to evolve, Mulder is now starting to consider federated Trusted Research Environments (TREs), particularly in how to build them in areas with limited administrative and computational capacity where data movement is challenging. Mulder’s group is thinking about building these environments in a way that is suitable for use in diverse contexts and within communities with varying resource levels.

“My vision is for Africa to leverage GA4GH, and the community itself, to leapfrog,” Mulder said. In order to leapfrog — jumping directly into the most up-to-date technologies rather than devoting time and resources to develop scientific infrastructure from the ground up — Mulder is hoping to accelerate the pace of building genomics workforces, genomic datasets, and clinical implementations to continually advance human health outcomes.

She asked, “How do we move from using genomics for research and discovery — which we still need to do a lot of — to also getting benefits to patients?” Mulder underscored this important question as a reminder of the real human impact that can be garnered through the field of genomics.