I am an Associate Professor at the Fred Hutch in the Computational Biology Program and Public Health Sciences Division. I joined the faculty starting in July of 2018. I am also an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington.
I received my BSc in Microbiology & Immunology and Computer Science from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2008. In 2014, I completed a PhD in Bioinformatics from the Bioinformatics Training Program at UBC, while working at the BC Cancer Agency under the supervision of Dr. Sohrab Shah and Dr. Sam Aparicio. In my doctoral work, I developed computational algorithms using Bayesian and machine learning approaches to analyze cancer genome data. I applied these methods to help uncover new insights into the aberrant genomes of ovarian and breast cancer. These contributions led to the Lloyd Skarsgard Graduate Research Excellence Award for most outstanding PhD research at the BC Cancer Agency.
I then joined the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Meyerson at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow. Here, I worked on developing computational methods for analyzing long-range DNA sequencing technologies Using these approaches, we discovered novel non-coding alterations containing enhancers of the androgen receptor gene in metastatic prostate cancer. Furthermore, I was instrumental in establishing a scalable workflow to study genomes and exomes of cell-free DNA from liquid biopsies.
Outside of science, I enjoy spending time with my family. In my free time, my hobbies include playing volleyball and powerlifting. I am also a sports fan and follow tennis, F1, hockey and basketball.