Director of Bioinformatics Platform
Harvard Chan School
Biography
Visionary leader in computational biology, excelling in genomic and data visualization for decision-making processes, with a proven track record in Biotech for enhancing target discovery through innovative bioinformatics methods. Leveraged genomics methods expertise to pioneer research at Harvard. Led cross-functional teams towards groundbreaking insights in fibrosis, oncology and neurodegeneration. Proficient in project coordination and mentoring scientists.
Biotech Consultant/Advisor (2020 to present): Advise on technology, computational biology and bioinformatics strategy for emerging BioTechs building data lakes and novel methods to accelerate the process of target discovery, gene editing and drug development pipelines
Founder and Organizer of Women in Bioinformatics in the Boston Area (2016 to present): Empowering women in computational biology and bioinformatics in academia and biotech by creating a safe and supportive space for career development alongside like-minded peers.
Board Member at AWIS MASS - Mentoring committee (2024 to present): Fostering the mentoring effort in the organization.
Ambassador Nextflow (2024 to present): Empowering the use of Nextflow and nf-core technology in the genomic space.
Co-chair of Genomics Bioinformatics ABRF (2024 to present): Continuing the effort to investigate genomics technologies applied in cores.
Vision and Mission
Accelerate decision-making process in biomedicine to impact people suffering from any conditions
Build robust platforms with innovative genomic data analysis and visualization to communicate system biology
Leadership
13 years of experience mentoring scientists and leading teams in Academia and Biotech environments.
Led cross-functional teams in BigPharma/Academia collaborations and biotech.
Experience in communication cross-teams and with business partners. Managed budget and timelines. Collaborate with business development team.
Community
JOSS editor.
Join our women in bioinformatics in Boston area.
Interests
- Target Discovery and Patient Stratification in Oncology and Neurodegeneration
- Sequencing-based Platforms, Multi-Omic Modelling and Genomic Visualization
Education
-
PhD in Biomedicine, 2011
Pompeu Fabra University
-
Ms in Bioinformatics, 2008
Pompeu Fabra University
-
BSc in Biochemistry, 2005
University of Granada
Experience
Director of Bioinformatics Platform
Harvard Chan Bioinformatics Core
Director, Head of Computational Biology
NextRNA Therapeutics
Responsibilities include:
- Led the computational biology team and strategy by being the interface between Biology, Technology and Drug Discovery teams
- Led the in-Silico Target discovery/validation team integrating NGS technology and innovative visualization methods
- Managed Illumina and Nanopore sequencing technology with internal FTEs and CROs
- Built the RNA structure and RNA-Protein interaction AI engine from SHAPE-Seq and eCLIP-Seq derived data
- Managed the cloud computational infrastructure to ensure reproducibility and scalability
Principal Scientist in Computational Biology
Axcella Health
Responsibilities include:
- Led R&D pipelines with computational strategies
- Led visualization platform with multi-omics data to understand gene regulation
- Applied machine learning methods to understand population stratification in pre-clinical studies
- Developed bioinformatics cloud infrastructure to ensure reproducibility and scalability*
Senior Computational Biologist
eGenesis Bio
Responsibilities include:
- Managed the internal NGS team with Oxford Nanopore and Illumina technologies
- Led the research of epigenetics marks to enforce expression of transgenes with machine learning
- Built the technical QA/QC genomic platform
- Developed multi-Omics pipelines in a community environment
- Managed the computational cloud infrastructure
Research Scientist
Harvard Chan School
Responsibilities include:
- Lead the bioinformatic activities in the cross-organ fibrosis project collaboration between Harvard University and Boehringer Ingelheim
- Developed and contributed to the computational platform maintaining the system scalable and reproducible
- Develop tools for NGS data analysis: small RNAseq, (Single Cell and bulk) RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, WholeGenome-seq as part of the bcbio-nextgen python framework * Bioconductor platform
- Developed the visualization and integration of multi-omics NGS data inside the bcbio-nextgen python framework
Research Associate
Harvard Chan School
- Develop tools for NGS data analysis: small RNAseq, (Single Cell and bulk) RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, WholeGenome-seq as part of the bcbio-nextgen python framework * Bioconductor platform
- Developed the visualization and integration of multi-omics NGS data inside the bcbio-nextgen python framework