Bio

From a young age, I was fascinated by how DNA works. I also developed an early interest in computers, programming, and the web, influenced by my upbringing in Silicon Valley. Even as a high school student, I knew I one day wanted to somehow combine my interests in biology and computer science, though I wasn’t exactly sure how.

Since then, I’ve now spent more than 20 years studying computational biology. As an undergraduate, I majored in bioinformatics and did research in phylogenetic systematics and population genetics with Michael Whiting and Keith Crandall at Brigham Young University. I completed my PhD at Duke in 2013, working on computational analysis of gene regulation in primates and among human cell-types with Terry Furey, Greg Crawford, and Boris Lenhard. After my PhD, I was an HFSP Postdoctoral Fellow in Christoph Bock’s Lab at the Center for Molecular Medicine, Vienna, Austria, where I worked on computational epigenomic analysis of pediatric cancer patient samples. I completed the return phase of my HFSP fellowship in Howard Chang’s Lab at Stanford, where I continued to work on data analysis methods in epigenomics. Through my training, I refined my research interests into trying to understand how DNA encodes regulatory networks that enable cellular differentiation, and how these systems break down in disease.

In 2016, I began my independent research group in the Center for Public Health Genomics at the University of Virginia. My group studies biological questions in genomics with a computational, data-oriented lens. We also develop computational methods and research infrastructure that can improve scientific computing in genomics and beyond, particularly the interoperability of data and analysis. We seek to communicate four independently useful research products: 1) novel biological insight, 2) novel analytical methods, 3) new open data, and 4) reusable software.

In free time, I enjoy spending time with my family, teaching my children, reading good books, backpacking, writing, taking photos, and having fun. I also have a passion for scientific writing, and am the author of this Scientific Writing web resource.

Academic history

  • Associate Professor, School of Data Science, University of Virginia, 2022
  • Associate Professor, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, 2022
    • Primary appointment: Center for Public Health Genomics
    • Secondary appointments: Cancer Center, Child Health Research Center, Depts. of Public Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
  • Assistant Professor, School of Data Science, University of Virginia, 2021
  • Assistant Professor, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, 2016
    • Primary appointment: Center for Public Health Genomics
    • Secondary appointments: Cancer Center, Child Health Research Center, Depts. of Public Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
  • HFSP Postdoc, Computational Epigenomics,
    • Center for Molecular Medicine, Vienna, Austria, 2013-2015
    • Center for Personal Dynamic Regulomes, Stanford University, 2016 (return phase)
  • Ph.D. Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Duke University, 2013
  • B.S. Bioinformatics, Brigham Young University, 2008

Publications

Research interests and publication lists

On the web