About me

I am currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine with Christopher Mason and Ari Melnick. My research focuses on the development and application of computational methods in microbiology, immuno-oncology, and the areas in which they intersect.

I completed my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics at Temple University, advised by Sergei Pond in the Viral Evolution Group, a part of the Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine.

An up-to-date list of my publicatins can be found on my Google scholar page.

Link to my current CV, PhD Diploma

Science highlights

Research in SARS-CoV-2

• Selection analysis identifies significant mutational changes in Omicron that are likely to influence both antibody neutralization and Spike function (Part 1 of 2)
• Selection analysis identifies significant mutational changes in Omicron that are likely to influence both antibody neutralization and Spike function (Part 2 of 2)
• Assessing evolutionary pressures on the SARS-CoV-2 μ (B.1.621) clade
• Rapid molecular sequence characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 variant of interest Lambda (C.37)
• RASCL: Rapid assessment of SARS-COV-2 clades enabled through molecular sequence analysis and its application to B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2
• RASCL Updates and interactive notebook
• RASCL Heavy Updates and interactive notebook

Posters/Presentations

• Galaxy Community Conference (GCC) 2022
• 29th International Dynamics & Evolution of Human Viruses
• 2019 MidAtlantic Bioinformatics Conference
• 28th International Dynamics & Evolution of Human Viruses
• 5th Workshop on Virus Dynamics
• 2021 Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution
• 2021 MidAtlantic Bioinformatics Conference
• Research overview 2022
• Dissertation Defense Slides (2023)
• 30th International Dynamics & Evolution of Human Viruses (2023)
• Mason Lab - 2023
• Melnick Lab - 2024
• Mason/Rice 2024
• FridaySymposia
• Using NCBI Virus to prepare data for Selection Analyses
• EEBG-2024
• Selective pressure is contributing to faster development of Covid-19 variants
• The twilight of tobacco: how electronic cigarettes can change humanity’s relationship with nicotine

Software development in evolutionary biology

• Multi-hit (MH) codon model
• Branch-site Unrestricted Statistical Test for Episodic Diversification with MH
• Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) profiler
• Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) profiler - pip installable alpha version
• Analysis of Orthologous Collections (AOC)
• Molecular Evolution SubSampling Investigator (MESSI)
• Measuring gene stoichiometry
• Rapid Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 CLades through molecular sequence analysis RASCL
• BUSTED Modeltesting