Dr. Günther's professional experience is centered around consulting, research and development. In 2014, he founded Günther Analytics, which provides consulting services in data analysis, modeling and simulation. His focus is on designing and implementing customized analysis approaches to translate scientific and business questions into numerical procedures and interpretable results. Throughout his career, he has worked with stakeholders and domain experts in industry and research across a variety of fields, including public health, medicine, environmental and clinical sciences, education and e-commerce.

From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Günther held a Data Mining Analyst position with the PROOF Centre of Excellence and Commercialization in Vancouver, Canada, where he worked on discovery and validation of biomarkers in respect to organ failure and rejection. This work involved integration of genomic, proteomic and other data sets, and implementation of computational pipelines for biomarker development as well as ensemble classifiers. From 2005 to 2007, Dr. Günther worked at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control where he developed and simulated mathematical models of disease transmission dynamics to determine optimal vaccination strategies against human papillomavirus (HPV) infection to reduce cervical cancer rates. Results from this study were consulted when the BC Health Ministry decided to implement a HPV vaccination program for girls in British Columbia in 2008. Prior to his move to Canada, Dr. Günther worked at multiple startup companies in the high-tech and biotech fields in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Publications (Günther Analytics)

NephroCAGE-German-Canadian Consortium on AI for Improved Kidney Transplantation Outcome: Protocol for an Algorithm Development and Validation Study.

Comprehensive immune profiling of SARS-CoV-2 infected kidney transplant patients.

Genome Canada precision medicine strategy for structured national implementation of epitope matching in renal transplantation.
Sherwood KR, Tran JN, Günther OP, Lan J, Aiyegbusi O, Liwski R, Sapir-Pichhadze R, Bryan S, Caulfield T, Keown PA & Genome Canada Transplant Consortium
Hum Immunol . 2022 Mar;83(3):264-269. DOI: 10.1016/j.humimm.2022.01.002. Epub 2022 Jan 31. (PubMed, Abstract)

High-throughput sequencing defines donor and recipient HLA B-cell epitope frequencies for prospective matching in transplantation.
Tran JN, Günther OP, Sherwood KR, Fenninger F, Allan LL, Lan J, Sapir-Pichhadze R, Duquesnoy R, Claas F, Marsh SGE, McMaster WR, Keown PA & Genome Canada Transplant Consortium
Commun Biol. 2021 May 14;4(1):583. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-01989-3 (PubMed, Abstract)

Testosterone therapy: Prescribing and monitoring patterns of practice in British Columbia.
Locke JA, Flannigan R, Günther OP, Skeldon S , Goldenberg SL
Can Urol Assoc J . 2021 Feb;15(2);E110-E117. DOI: 10.5489/cuaj.6586. (PubMed, PMC)

Discovery and surveillance of viruses from salmon in British Columbia using viral immune-response biomarkers, metatranscriptomics, and high-throughput RT-PCR.
Mordecai GJ, Di Cicco E, Günther OP, Schulze AD, Kaukinen KH, Li S, Tabata A, Ming TJ, Ferguson HW, Suttle CA, Miller KM
Virus Evolution, Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2021. DOI: 10.1093/ve/veaa069 (PubMed, PMC)

Identification of Hypoxia-Specific Biomarkers in Salmonids Using RNA-Sequencing and Validation Using High-Throughput qPCR.
Akbarzadeh A, Houde ALS, Sutherland BJG, Günther OP, Miller KM
G3 (Bethesda) . 2020 Sep 2;10(9):3321-3336. DOI: 10.1534/g3.120.401487 (PubMed, PMC)

Discovery and validation of candidate smoltification gene expression biomarkers across multiple species and ecotypes of Pacific salmonids.
Houde ALS, Günther OP, Strohm J, Ming TJ, Li S, Kaukinen KH, Patterson DA, Farrell AP, Hinch SG, Miller KM
Conserv Physiol. 2019 Oct 11;7(1):coz051. eCollection 2019. DOI: 10.1093/conphys/coz051  (PubMed, Abstract)

Salmonid gene expression biomarkers indicative of physiological responses to changes in salinity and temperature, but not dissolved oxygen.
House ALS, Akbarzadeh A, Günther OP, Li S, Patterson DA, Farrell AP, Hinch SG, Miller KM
J Exp Biol. 2019 Jul 5;222(Pt 13). pii: jeb198036. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.198036  (PubMed, Abstract)

Immunosignature Analysis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).
Günther OP, Gardy JL, Stafford P, Fluge Ø, Mella O, Tang P, Miller RR, Parker SM, Johnston SA, Patrick DM
Mol Neurobiol. 2019 Jun;56(6):4249-4257. DOI: 10.1007/s12035-018-1354-8 Epub 2018 Oct 8. (PubMed, Abstract)

Developing specific molecular biomarkers for thermal stress in salmonids.
Akbarzadeh A, Günther OP, Houde AL, Li S, Ming TJ, Jeffries KM, Hinch SG, Miller KM
BMC Genomics. 2018 Oct 16;19(1):749. DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-5108-9  (PubMed, Abstract)

The same strain of Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV-1) is involved in the development of different, but related, diseases in Atlantic and Pacific Salmon in British Columbia.
Di Cicco E, Ferguson HW, Kaukinen KH, Schulze AD, Li S, Tabata A, Günther OP, Mordecai G, Suttle CA, Miller KM
FACETS. 2018;3(1):599–641, DOI: 10.1139/facets-2018-0008  (arXiv, Abstract)

Molecular indices of viral disease development in wild migrating salmon.
Miller KM, Günther OP, Li S, Kaukinen KH, Ming TJ
Conserv Physiol. 2017 Jun 27;5(1):cox036., DOI: 10.1093/conphys/cox036  (PubMed, Abstract)

Controlled diesel exhaust and allergen coexposure modulates microRNA and gene expression in humans: Effects on inflammatory lung markers.
Rider CF, Yamamoto M, Günther OP, Hirota JA, Singh A, Tebbutt SJ, Carlsten C
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2016 Dec;138(6):1690-1700. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2016.02.038 (PubMed, Abstract)

Publications (1997-2014)

Novel Multivariate Methods for Integration of Genomics and Proteomics Data: Applications in a Kidney Transplant Rejection Study
Günther OP, Shin H, Ng RT, McMaster WR, McManus BM, Keown PA, Tebbutt SJ, and Lê Cao KA.
OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology. November 2014, 18(11): 682-695. doi:10.1089/omi.2014.0062. ( PubMed, Abstract)

Longitudinal Analysis of Whole Blood Transcriptomes to Explore Molecular Signatures Associated With Acute Renal Allograft Rejection.
Shin H, Günther OP, Hollander Z, Wilson-McManus JE, Ng RT, Balshaw RF, Keown PA, McMaster WR, McManus BM, Isbel NM, Knoll G, Tebbutt SJ; PROOF Centre of Excellence Team
Bioinformatics and Biology Insights 2014:8 17-33. doi: 10.4137/BBI.S13376. ( PubMed, Abstract)

Alteration of human blood cell transcriptome in uremia.
Scherer A, Günther OP, Balshaw RF, Hollander Z, Wilson-McManus J, Ng RT, McMaster WR, McManus BM, Keown PA
BMC Med Genomics. 2013 Jun 28;6(1):23. doi: 10.1186/1755-8794-6-23. ( PubMed, Abstract)

A computational pipeline for the development of multi-marker bio-signature panels and ensemble classifiers.
Günther OP, Chen V, Freue GC, Balshaw RF, Tebbutt SJ, Hollander Z, Takhar M, McMaster WR, McManus BM, Keown PA, Ng RT
BMC Bioinformatics. 2012 Dec 8;13:326. doi: 10.1186/1471-2105-13-326. ( PubMed, Abstract)

DNA methylation profiles of airway epithelial cells and PBMCs from healthy, atopic and asthmatic children.
Stefanowicz D, Hackett TL, Garmaroudi FS, Günther OP, Neumann S, Sutanto EN, Ling KM, Kobor MS, Kicic A, Stick SM, Paré PD, Knight DA.
PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e44213. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044213. ( PubMed, Abstract)

Effects of Sample Timing and Treatment on Gene Expression in Early Acute Renal Allograft Rejection.
Günther OP, Lin D, Balshaw RF, Ng RT, Hollander Z, Wilson-McManus J, McMaster WR, McManus BM, Keown PA; Biomarkers in Transplantation Team
Transplantation. 2011 Feb 15;91(3):323-29 (PubMed, Abstract)

Proteomic signatures in plasma during early acute renal allograft rejection.
Freue GV, Sasaki M, Meredith A, Günther OP, Bergman A, Takhar M, Mui A, Balshaw RF, Ng RT, Opushneva N, Hollander Z, Li G, Borchers CH, Wilson-McManus J, McManus BM, Keown PA, McMaster WR; Genome Canada Biomarkers in Transplantation Group
Mol Cell Proteomics. 2010 Sep;9(9):1954-67 (PubMed, Abstract)

Functional genomic analysis of peripheral blood during early acute renal allograft rejection.
Günther OP, Balshaw RF, Scherer A, Hollander Z, Mui A, Triche TJ, Freue GC, Li G, Ng RT, Wilson-McManus J, McMaster WR, McManus BM, Keown PA; Biomarkers in Transplantation Team
Transplantation. 2009 Oct 15;88(7):942-51 (PubMed, Abstract)

Protecting the next generation: what is the role of the duration of human papillomavirus vaccine-related immunity?
Günther OP, Ogilvie G, Naus M, Young E, Patrick DM, Dobson S, Duval B, Noël PA, Marra F, Miller D, Brunham RC, Pourbohloul B
Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2008 Jun 15;197(12):1653-61 ( PubMed, Abstract)

ArtiSynth: An extensible, cross-platform 3D articulatory speech synthesizer
Fels S, Vogt F, van den Doel K, Lloyd JE, Günther O
Conference on Auditory and Visual Speech Processing, 2005

Pattern Control in Unstable Structures
Günther O, Hogg T, Huberman BA
Proc. of SPIE 98 conference on Mathematics and Control in Smart Structures, Editor V. V. Varadan, Vol. 3323, p. 426-445, 1998

Market Organizations for Controlling Smart Matter
Günther O, Hogg T, Huberman BA
Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems 456, p. 241-257, Springer Verlag, 1997

Learning in Multiagent Control of Smart Matter
Günther O, Hogg T, Huberman BA
Proc. AAAI 97 Workshop on Multiagent Learning, p. 36-40, Editor S. Sen AAAI Press, 1997

Controls for Unstable Structures
Günther O, Hogg T, Huberman BA
Proc. of SPIE 97 conference on Mathematics and Control in Smart Structures, Vol. 3039, p. 754-763, 1997

Patents

Co-inventor of Canadian patent application ( CA 2725599 ):
Methods of diagnosing rejection of a kidney allograft using genomic or proteomic expression profiling

Co-inventor of US-patent application ( U.S. Patent No. 6,027,112 ):
Adaptive multiagent control systems for controlling object motion with smart matter

Co-inventor of US-patent application ( U.S. Patent No. 6,119,052 ):
Market-based control system for controlling object motion with smart matter

Co-inventor of US-patent application ( U.S. Patent No. 7,085,692 ):
Learning systems and methods for market-based control of smart matter

Awards

2011: Burroughs Wellcome Fund Collaborative Research Travel Grant for a six week visit at the Queensland Facility for Advanced Bioinformatics (QFAB) in Brisbane, Australia, to learn about mixOmics methodologies.

1997-1998: Scholarship from the German-Academic-Exchange-Service (DAAD) to conduct Ph.D. research at Xerox PARC.

1995: Prize (monetary) of the WE-Heraeus-Stiftung/Germany for completing physics Masters degree within suggested time frame.