For Students

January 2023

If you are interested in working with me for an undergraduate projects/masters thesis, please get in touch over email with a brief description of why you are interested in joining my group, your coursework, and whether you have experience in programming. Students who can commit to at least 9 months in the lab will be preferred. We currently cannot take students for a period shorter than 6 months.

Current lab members

1. Eric Macwan. Project assistant. Huntington’s disease haplotypes
2. Debasrija Mondal. Data analyst. GenomeIndia phenotyping
3. Hiba Ali (jointly with Latha Diwakar). Project Assistant. WGS of a Parkinson’s Disease cohort.
4. Nagesh Srikalulam. Postdoctoral Fellow (jointly with Latha Diwakar). GWAS of a Parkinson’s Disease cohort.
5. Himanshu Joshi. Postdoctoral Fellow.
6. Sagar S. Project intern. Characterization of transposable elements.
7. Sohan Angelo. Project intern. Characterization of the APOE haplotype in Indian populations.

Lab philosophy

The goal of this lab is to do good science that is honest, reliable, and solid. This means being okay with being wrong, and constantly learning from ours and others’ results. Mistakes happen in science (especially in bioinformatics), and it’s necessary that we own up to them and move beyond them.

Genomics is a collaborative field, and I expect the same collaborative spirit to exist in our lab. It is my hope that we all help each other out and constantly learn from each other. We are not competing with other members of the group.

We are an inclusive group, and everyone should feel welcome in our group. We will strive to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. In scientific discussions, we should disagree in a manner that is firm but gentle. There will be no room for personal attacks in this lab. This is also true when we engage with folks outside the lab.

Expectations for research students who work with me

1. Record all your work. Reproducibility is of primary importance in computational biology. When you revisit an analysis six months later (something which will definitely happen), you should be able to figure out what you did. You can use Benchling as an electronic lab notebook.
2. Read the literature. Being aware of other studies is an important part of the scientific process. I expect students to read at least two papers a week.
3. Meet with me at least once a week.
4. Write a weekly report on your progress/work over the previous week. This doesn’t have to be very long, this is a way to reflect on the previous week’s work, plan for the next week, and organize your data. It’s okay not to have gotten anything to work the previous week.
5. Take ownership: Your project is yours, and you will be co-leading it with me. I expect students to
6. Integrity: In science, we do not look for a particular result. We report what we see, even if it is a ‘disappointing’ result.
7. Work collaboratively. The best part of an academic environment is the ability to learn from each other. The best scientific ideas often arise from conversations over coffee. I expect members of the group to support each other and take the time to learn about each others’ work.

What students can expect from me (inspired by Ziyue Gao)

• I will provide rigorous training in bioinformatics, statistics and human genetics.
• I will work with you to help you identify a question that drives you.
• I will help you develop your writing, presenting, and leadership skills (a key both in academia and outside academia).
• I will meet with you weekly to troubleshoot, prioritize next steps, and help keep projects moving.
• I will help move your project from the first draft to a paper/conference presentation
• I will be supportive of your career goals and will work with you to find the best ways to reach them.