Careers in Computational Biology
Monday, March 7, 2022, 5:30 – 6:30 PM CST
The field of computational biology involves the development and application of computational-driven research (including computational simulations, mathematical modeling, and/or theoretical methods) to study biological systems and processes. Join our panel this week to learn about careers that exist within this field, the competencies that are required to be successful in these types of careers, and more.
Russell Bainer, PhD
Head of Computational Biology, Maze Therapeutics
Leads the Computational Biology group at Maze Therapeutics, a company focused on using integrative human genetic and functional genomics methods to develop therapies for genetic diseases. At Maze, his group plays important roles in diverse experimental, analytical, and methodological efforts to develop and extend experimental biology and drug discovery applications. Dr. Bainer received his Ph.D in Human Genetics from the University of Chicago, completed his postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco, and worked as a Scientist in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Department at Genentech, Inc. prior to joining Maze. His research is broadly focused on methodological innovation in functional genomics experiments, with a particular focus on epigenetic technologies and pooled screens.
José P. Faria, PhD
Assistant Computational Biologist Argonne National Laboratory
José P. Faria is a Computational Biologist at Argonne’s recently formed Data Science and Learning division. He started his education as a Biologist and went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Bioengineering under the scope of the MIT Portugal Progam. He has been a member of the Henry Lab at Argonne since its inception in 2009, starting as a Visiting Fullbright Scholar to perform research for his Master’s thesis. In his young career, his research has focused on genome-scale metabolic modeling reconstruction and analysis for prokaryotes as a member of the ModelSEED team. He brought his expertise in metabolic modeling to KBase and actively engages in the development of new scientific tools for the community. In KBase he can also be found on the road as amember of the outreach team. He has lectured over 20 workshops in the last 4 years in 5 different countries. His research interests intersect the fields of Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Metabolic Engineering and Systems Biology.
Gulum Kosova, PhD
Associate Director, Statistical Genetics, TenSixteen Bio
Dr. Kosova received her PhD in Genetics from the University of Chicago and completed postdoctoral trainings at Northwestern University and Massachusetts General Hospital, focusing on identifying genetic factors contributing to cardiovascular disease risk and other complex human traits. She worked at Merck Research Laboratories providing pharmacogenetics support to clinical teams before moving on to Foresite Labs, where she helped with the incubation efforts of three precision medicine-focused therapeutics companies. Currently she is the head of statistical genetics group in one of these incubated companies, TenSixteen Bio, focusing on somatic mosaicism and its risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease and aging.
