Umit Topaloglu, Ph.D.

As Chief of the Clinical and Translational Research Informatics Branch, I lead NCI’s clinical research informatics strategy across precision medicine (including biomarker-driven trial readiness and matching), clinical trials reporting, and enterprise modernization. I direct a portfolio of AI initiatives that operationalize large language models (LLMs) and knowledge graphs to convert protocols into structured, standards-aligned artifacts (e.g., computable eligibility) and streamline end-to-end study workflows. These efforts reduce administrative burden while improving clinical trial matching and study operations through human-in-the-loop automation. I also advance privacy-preserving multi-site analytics, including federated learning approaches that enable cross-institutional collaboration while keeping data local.

I oversee NCI’s Semantic Infrastructure (EVS and caDSR), which underpins interoperability, real-world evidence, and scalable cancer research. In addition to modernizing terminology and common data elements with AI-assisted methods, I co-lead USCDI+ Cancer efforts to improve the completeness, availability, and exchange of cancer-relevant data from EHRs. This work identifies key gaps, strengthens standard capture, and enables consistent, standards-based reuse of clinical data for research and reporting through governance, provenance, and expert curation.

Publications

• Breaking Digital Health Barriers Through a Large Language Model-Based Tool for Automated Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Mapping: Development and Validation Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2025.
• Modular and cloud-based bioinformatics pipelines for high-confidence biomarker detection in cancer immunotherapy clinical trials. PLoS One, 2025.
• A Field Guide to Deploying AI Agents in Clinical Practice. arXiv, 2025.

Background

Education

• Ph.D., Applied Science, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
• M.S., Electrical Engineering, Cukurova University (Turkey)
• B.S., Electrical Engineering, Cukurova University (Turkey)

Previous Work

• Co-Director, Bioinformatics Shared Resource, Wake Forest University School of Medicine 
  (WFSoM)
• Associate Lead, Informatics Program, Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science 
  Institute, WFSoM
• Associate Director, Center for Biomedical Informatics, WFSoM
• Associate Professor, Cancer Biology and Biostatistics and Data Science Departments, WFSoM
• Associate Director of Informatics, Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center, WFSoM