- Molecular Biology
- Physiology
- Genetics/Genomics
- Organic Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Algorithms
- Database Systems
- Biostatistics
- Regression Analysis
- Machine Learning
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Hello, I’m Matt, a laboratory scientist and bioinformatics programmer. I have a serious passion for computers, bioinformatics and
algorithms. Bioinformatician who enjoys studying microbiological genomics and algorithms. Not currently
enrolled in a program but still studying the disciplines nonetheless. I look for disciplines that are
synergistic with biological fundamentals (chemistry, compuster science, and mathematics) to balance
potential applied science areas with my quantitative reasoning.
Philosophically, I admire the spirit of the Gnu Public License, Creative Commons, Arduino, and open-science
communities. Some day, I'd love to work on some blog posts about citizen science with Arduino
instruments.
A challenge in biological sciences is system complexity and the number of system components available to
study. For this reason, there has been an increase in the number of multiplexed measurement technologies, as
well as an increase in the cost of instrumentation. Multiplexed assay formats like the microarray and
Illumina sequencing provide a broad, survey arm to detect changes worth investigating at the classical
level. However, determining the sensitivity of such measurements or confronting the quantitative aspects of
biology remains a challenge that is often addressed by software and statistical thresholding.
Quantitative fundamentals are often pushed aside in exchange for a broad applied science survey in many
undergraduate biology programs. For this reason, I elected to focus on classical biochemistry book work,
applied molecular fundamentals in a cancer laboratory, and a masters degree in computer science with a focus
on sequencing technology and multiplexed gene expression.
If there was one thing I'd fix from my masters degree, it would be that I didn't build the library from
scratch with cheap ligases and random hexamers. I elected instead to use a Illumina TruSeq sequencing kit,
which produced an RNA library with good fragment length and excellent fastq quality scores. However, these
kits should be used as a high-caliber basis to judge the quality of alternative library preparation
protocols utilizing cheaper reagents and custom barcoding strategies. In short: I wish I had used a more DIY
approach.
Open source fanboy, powerlifter, guitarist.
I am currently working on tuning and benchmarking an algorithm for processing k-mer spectra under GPLv3+. The project is detailed further under my Portfolio Showcase. The project features theoretical investigations, code profiling, report generation, and Github project management.
In the past, I worked for Terry Papoutsakis (metabolic engineer of the bacterium C. acetobutylicum), the biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb in two departments: Computational Genomics and Computer Assisted Drug Design, as well as the Microbial Genomics group of Bayer Crop Sciences. If you'd like to see more about my professional life, please check out the associated information in my resume, my LinkedIn, or contact me on social media for my long-form curriculum vitae.
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