Seattle, Washington, United States
• Mission driven to improve the lives of patients • Leverages extensive computational biology experience in target discovery, biomarker discovery, and translational research. Areas include immuno-oncology, cell therapy, neuroscience, and autoimmunity. Strong individual technical skills in gene expression analysis, genomics, data science, visualization, web application development, machine learning and large language models • Collaborates broadly and excels in communications to strategically align efforts across wet lab, dry lab and executive leadership. Serves as a highly effective scientific and business leader in large or small and diverse organizations • Invests in development of scientists through engagement with organization goals and a focus on impacting projects • Thrives in high-paced environment and has a demonstrated ability and eagerness for continuous learning and challenges
Develop and maintain a gene expression atlas web application for use by biologists. Application allows users to search for differentially expressed genes, generate gene expression plots, discover and test potential biomarkers, perform sample clustering analysis. It also provides the data and plots with a user-friendly API so that other tools can incorporate the data. License the software to several biotech companies.
Leading a computational biology team in the Informatics and Predictive Sciences department working with the IO and Cell Therapy Thematic Research Center; team members and I perform exploratory analyses for discovery, pre-clinical, and translational activities. We use datasets such as bulk and single cell RNA-seq on solid tumor and sorted immune cells, flow cytometry on blood and bone marrow cells, multiplex IHC of solid and heme tumors, CAR-T expansion, disease genetics, and blood cytokines. Participate in cross-functional teams related to cellular therapy strategy, biotherapeutics and small molecule discovery, and translational programs. Perform gene expression analysis using TCGA and single cell datasets to predict responsive patients across cancer indications for internal and partner immuno-oncology clinical programs. Use learnings from analysis of T cell exhaustion datasets to enable identification of new targets, inform in vitro target validation assays, and interpret CAR-T expansion and response in the clinic. [Originally hired at Celgene, at BMS through acquisition] [Consultant, Aug 2015; Principal Scientist, Dec 2015; Senior Principal Scientist, Nov 2018; Director, March 2020]
• Statistical analysis and reporting of clinical data for FDA filing of a new diagnostic gene expression test for sepsis, SeptiCyte(c) Lab, later approved in 2017. • Process and analyze many public gene expression datasets with the goal of finding new signatures for sepsis or other infections in various settings. (published June 2017, Scientific Reports, see below for link)
• Lead well respected bioinformatics team whose focus included many aspects of the autoimmune drug discovery process such as target discovery, biomarker identification, mechanism of action, and patient clinical response. The team used a wide combination of RNA expression (RNA-seq and microarray), genetic (GWAS and whole genome), FACS and pathway data as our primary sources for this work. • Identified need and took the initiative to develop a web-based tool to integrate and share all of the relevant public and internal RNA-seq profiling data with the various biology groups across company global sites. This web database enabled team members and biologists to introduce multiple new targets into the drug discovery pipeline. • Participated in several cross functional strategy teams including: the rheumatoid arthritis target discovery program, big data, software evaluation, human genetics, in-licensing and the lupus (SLE) disease focus group. • Utilized data analysis techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA), clustering approaches (hierarchical clustering, k-means), differential expression tests, linear models, machine learning, gene modules, cell type deconvolution, and pathway analysis. [Senior Scientist, 2009-2014; Principal Scientist, 2014]