Associate Data Scientist
Department of Epidemiology
MD Anderson Cancer Center

About Me

I am a computational geneticist studying the evolutionary and developmental origins of health and disease. I investigate how parental genomes and prenatal environments shape gene regulation and development. My interests span evolutionary biology, molecular genetics, and environmental health, which converge in the placenta.

My research combines computational methods and functional genomics to connect genetic variation to molecular function across diverse gene-regulatory mechanisms, including imprinting, transposon exonization, and splicing.

I am an Associate Data Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where I work with Dr. Arjun Bhattacharya and Dr. Paul Scheet.

I am currently seeking tenure-track Assistant Professor positions.

Explore my research →

Original three-arm research overview: comparative evolutionary origins, isoform-resolution placental functional genomics, and environmental modification of genetic risk. The left and center arms connect evolutionary regulation; the center and right connect maternal influences with offspring health. — Two overlapping directions: evolutionary regulation (left + center) and maternal influences on offspring health (center + right).

News

2026

Oct 19
PFAS and transplacental transfer study published in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Oct
Poster at ASHG 2026 in Montréal: maternal metabolic environment and fetal genetic regulation of the placental transcriptome.
Sep 09
NIEHS R21 awarded to study PFAS, placental imprinting, and neurodevelopment. I serve as co-investigator; Arjun Bhattacharya is PI.
Aug 31
ICONIC preprint: integrating genetic instruments and negative controls for causal-inference diagnostics in multi-omics.
Aug 31
New essay: “One in five observational omics papers overstates causal claims (with caveats).”
Jun 24
Invited talk at SER in Phoenix on negative controls and genetic instruments for studying PFAS, placental regulation, and development.
May
Invited poster at STATGEN in Atlanta on negative-control calibration for placental imprinting and neurodevelopment.
Apr 02
Our placental long-read transcriptome reference is published in Nature Communications.
Mar 25
PFAS preprint: transplacental transfer and distinct placental transcriptional networks associated with birth outcomes.
Mar 23
New preprint on long-read transcript assemblies, isoform-level eQTLs, and breast cancer risk.
Mar
Poster at the Society for Reproductive Investigation in San Juan on gestational PFAS, placental regulation, and infant neurodevelopment.
Mar
Promoted to Associate Data Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Mar
Started a bioinformatics consulting role with Vindhya Data Science, evaluating therapeutic targets using cancer genomics.
2026
Invited MD Anderson Epidemiology seminar on gestational PFAS exposure and placental genomic imprinting.

2025

Oct
Talk at ASHG in Boston on the placental long-read transcriptome and its metabolic and endocrine functions.
Aug 24
New preprint: quantification method affects replicability of eQTL analysis, colocalization, and TWAS.
Aug 07
Our isoform-level analyses of six cancers are published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Jun 28
Preprint introducing a placenta-specific long-read transcriptome reference.
Jun 18
My honey bee caste-determination study is published in Genome Biology.
May 06
Metacleaner write-up on Substack: automated curation of sequence databases for metabarcoding and metagenomics.
May
Poster at Biology of Genomes, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, on placental long-read assembly and gestational diabetes.
2025
Invited MD Anderson Epidemiology seminar on long-read assembly and analysis of breast tissue and tumor.
2025
Received an ASHG 2025 travel award.