Bio
Helio Costa, PhD, is a medical geneticist specializing in oncology, genomics, computational biology, data science, artificial intelligence, and product development. His work focuses on developing new cancer therapies and medical software to improve cancer patient care. He currently serves as Senior Medical Director and Head of Molecular Therapeutics & Drug Development at Natera and is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford Medical School.
Dr. Costa’s research spans the entire drug development pipeline, from discovery to FDA-approved therapies. He leads efforts in developing innovative cancer treatments by integrating advanced genomics, computational biology, and AI-driven methodologies. His team focuses on the creation of targeted molecular therapeutics, using large-scale genetic data to identify novel treatment pathways and predict patient responses. In addition to drug discovery, Dr. Costa oversees the clinical trials necessary for validating these therapies, ensuring they meet rigorous standards for safety and efficacy. Furthermore, he manages the product development and commercialization process, guiding new treatments from initial research through to market-ready, FDA-approved cancer therapies.
In addition to his therapeutic work, Dr. Costa has led the development and implementation of genetic diagnostic tests and clinical algorithms used to support therapeutic decisions at Stanford Health Care. His contributions include the creation of DNA and RNA cancer diagnostic tests, as well as algorithms that analyze large-scale laboratory datasets and electronic medical records to predict patient outcomes. As a co-investigator with the NIH Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Consortium, Dr. Costa oversaw developing FDA-recognized medical software used by healthcare providers, researchers, and biotech companies to assess the clinical relevance of genes and mutations.
He is the founding director of the Stanford Clinical Data Science Fellowship, where post-doctoral medical fellows engage in interdisciplinary clinical research and implement real-world health data solutions within Stanford Health Care. Dr. Costa is also an Attending Medical Geneticist for the Molecular Genetic Pathology Laboratory at Stanford Health Care, where he previously served as Assistant Lab Director.
Dr. Costa holds a BS in Genetics from the University of California, Davis, a PhD in Genetics from Stanford University School of Medicine, and completed his ABMGG Clinical Molecular Genetics and Genomics fellowship training at Stanford University School of Medicine.
