Thread by @blkwomencompbio

Happy Monday & welcome to the #BlackWomenCompBio January Celebration where we are commemorating our first year as a global network!

This week, we'll be highlighting some of the amazing Black womxn members who make up our community. First, we'll hear from our founder, @JeneaIA

@dangela_pr was a @BlackInNeuro co-organizer and joined BWCB while she works toward her goal of achieving a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience. She's currently a post-bac in the @NIH Academy Enrichment Program. Visit her YT channel at youtube.com/c/dangela.

@MelyssaMinto is a Ph.D. Candidate from 🇯🇲 but raised in Durham, NC in @DukeU's Computational Biology & Bioinformatics program. She earned a BS in Bio/Math from Meredith College & now studies epigenetics & gene regulation. She's also on the BWCB Seminar/Workshop board!

@SimSci9 is a Ph.D. Candidate @UniofNewcastle in 🇬🇧 studying Bioinformatics & Immunology specializing in the fields of single-cell RNA seq, immunology, & hematopoiesis. She is a @BlkInData co-founder, which was a widely successful initiative highlighting Black data scientists!

Jane Njeri (@NjeriAquila) is a Master's student in Bioinformatics @Pwaniuni in 🇰🇪. She's interested in biomarker identification, statistical genomics, Python & R programming. She also serves on our seminar/workshop board!

Rhondene Wint (@R_Winty) is from 🇯🇲 and is currently a Ph.D. candidate @ucmerced in the Quantitative & Systems Biology program. She's interested in gene expression and tRNA regulation in the nervous system, genomics, & data science. She's also experienced in STEM education!

Wittney Mays is a computational biologist at @SandiaLabs 🇺🇸 and received her master's degree in bioinformatics from @Illinois_Alma. She's interested in understanding how genomics can contribute to bioenergy production.

LaShanda Williams, PhD (@DrCoolSci) recently completed a postdoc @EinsteinMed & is now a Bioinformatician & R Shiny Developer at EMD Serono where part of her job is to design/develop web apps to expand the collection of self-service analytical tools for human autoimmune disease.

Keisha Cook, PhD is currently a postdoctoral researcher @Tulane 🇺🇸 and got her Ph.D. from @UofAlabama in Applied Mathematics & Comp Bio. She's interested in single-particle tracking, Bayesian inference methods, Markov processes, stochastic processes and more.

Katelin Jackson, MS, MPH (@KayJay56) is a Ph.D. Student at @wsu 🇺🇸 studying Infectious Disease and Immunology/Computational Epidemiology through mathematical modeling.

Ndeye Marieme Top (@dna_ddict) is a Master's student in Bioinformatics at Institute Pasteur de Dakar in 🇸🇳. She received her bachelor's degree in bioinformatics from the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar.

Aneth David, MS @anethdavidd is from 🇹🇿 & is currently a PhD Student @_SLU & assistant lecturer @UniofDar
w/focus on agricultural biotechnology. She's also an ambassador for @NextEinsteinFor & @eLife where she shares her passion for science in Africa & promotes STEM diversity!

Amanda Alexander, PhD 🇺🇸 is a recent doctoral graduate from @Yale's Biomedical Engineering program where she studied the role of cell-to-cell heterogeneity in innate immune function, myeloid cell biology, and bioinformatics with applications to immunotherapies.

@gigi_kenneth is a recent bachelor's graduate from @uniport 🇳🇬 and a passionate data scientist interested in applications of artificial intelligence in genomics, healthcare, and agriculture.

Teofilia Acheampong, PhD (@TeeEpi) is a City Researcher at the City of NY 🇺🇸 Department of Health & Mental hygiene. Postdoc @Columbia & PhD from @UCIrvine in epidemiology & is interested in the intersection of statistics & methodology of social & chronic disease epidemiology.

DAY 2!

Say hello to @violet_kimble a @DrewUniversity (Madison, NJ 🇺🇸) undergraduate studying Neuroscience with an interest in bioinformatics. She shares why she joined BWCB and how it's helped her in her journey so far!

Nyasha Chambwe, PhD (@doc_nyasha) is a Senior Bioinformatics Research Scientist @StJudeResearch in 🇺🇸 from 🇿🇼. PhD from @WeillCornell + an accomplished computational biologist, precision medicine enthusiast, and STEM educator/mentor. She's on the Inaugural BWCB Advisory Board.

Asia Mitchell, PhD (@Asia_Mitch) is a Medical Affairs & Clinical Bioinformatics Analyst @Invitae in 🇺🇸 & received her PhD from @OHSUNews in Molecular and Medical Genetics. Also a @BlkInData co-organizer, she's passionate about building infrastructure for accessible health data.

Dominque Cantave is an alum of @Harvard where she received her bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics. She's also an alum @TECBioREU, a computational biology @NSF REU @PittTweet. She has taken her diverse talents to the consulting industry.

Quindel Jones is a Ph.D. Student @VCU 🇺🇸 specializing in Mathematical Biology. A native of Jackson, MS, she received her bachelor's in mathematics from @JacksonStateU in Mathematics with a focus on systems modeling and analysis.

Ariangela Kozik, PhD (@dr_kozik) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the @UMich 🇺🇸. She received her Ph.D. from @LifeAtPurdue in Comparative Pathobiology. She uses bioinformatics as a tool to identify microbial patterns associated with clinical manifestations of disease.

Meg Pirrung, PhD (@megalodonatron) is a Senior Product Designer @CollectiveMed 🇺🇸. She recevied her PhD in Computational Bioscience from @CUAnschutz and is passionate about explainable AI and data visualization with a focus on creating user-centered solutions to complex problems.

Azza Ahmed, MS (@azzaea_ ) is a double PhD student currently @univgroningen in 🇳🇱 studying bioinformatics but she started her journey in the @H3ABioNet Sudan 🇸🇩node. With roots in engineering, she now focuses on computational methods of analysis for GWAS & NGS data.

*Correction* Dr. Pirrung is currently a freelance product designer Ueno.

Alexis Kelley is currently an undergraduate @ucmerced 🇺🇸 studying Applied Mathematics. As a current prospective PhD student, her goal is to earn her doctorate in computational biosciences as she's interested in systems biology, mathematical modeling, and biomedical informatics.

Delissa McMillen, MS, MBA (@Delissa76) is currently a Research Associate @AllenInstitute for Brain Science in 🇺🇸. She received her Master's degrees in biotechnology/bioinformatics & business from @umdglobalcampus after years as a medical tech in the US Air National Guard.

Thaís Del Rosario was a Biology/Computer Science double major at @CarletonCollege 🇺🇸. She's interested in exploring the interdisciplinary relationship between Computer Science and Biology and how technology can be designed to better fit the current needs of biological analysis.

A captioned version of this video is now available on our youtube: .

All future and current videos uploaded will be captioned soon. Thanks to those ensuring everyone can enjoy our content.

Khadija Wilson (@KhadijaDeniece) is a PhD candidate from 🇹🇹 @Penn in the pharmacology program studying quantitative proteomics for understanding neuroepigenetic mechanisms as an @NSFGRFP Fellow. She received her bachelor's in biology from @CUNY Brooklyn College as a MARC scholar.

Winfred Gatua (@gatuaprof) is currently a Bioinformatics Master's student @Pwaniuni in 🇰🇪. As an EANBIT MSC Fellow @icipe, she's interested in virus evolution, phylodynamics, human genetics, toxin research, and vector genomics

Ti'ara Griffen (@blkstemhero) is a biomedical sciences Ph.D. candidate @Morehouse School of Medicine 🇺🇸 with a focus on cancer biology & bioinformatics. She analyzes large transcriptomic & proteomic datasets to identify novel signatures that correlate with clinical outcomes.

Stephanie Fotsing, PhD is a Bioinformatics postdoc @ljiresearch with a background in medical informatics. She is passionate about understanding the role of genetic variants in gene regulation diseases & complex phenotypes. Her #BlackInCompBio seminar talk:

Day 3!
Kalisse Horne is a Master's student studying Genomics @USciences in Philadelphia, PA 🇺🇸 & actually earned her Bachelor's from @Rutgers in Marine Biology 🐟. She'll be applying to #compbio PhD programs next year.

Learn why she made the switch to human genomics research👇🏾

Markia Smith (@MarkiaASmith) is a PhD Student @UNC studying cancer genomics & environmental epi. She uses integrative genomic approaches to study environmental & genetic determinants of cancer, leading to health disparities + is a @BlackInGenetics & @BlkInData co-organizer.

Ruth Nanjala (@Ruthnanje) is currently a Bioinformatics master's student @Pwaniuni in 🇰🇪 and @UCT_news
🇿🇦 as an @EANBiT_Project fellow. She also received her bachelor's degree in Microbiology from @Pwaniuni.

Taylor Ferebee, MS (@Ferebee2PhD) is a Computational Biology PhD student @Cornell 🇺🇸. She received her master's in Mathematical Sciences from @ClemsonUniv with a focus on translational genomics and now studies multi-omic data integration and information fusion in maize 🌽systems.

Stacey Finley, PhD (@USCSysBio_Lab) is a BWCB Inaugural Advisory Board member& Associate Professor in dept. Biomed. Eng. @USC. She's is interested in the computational aspects of systems bio & applying tools to develop molecular-detailed mathematical models of biological systems.

Angela Baltes, PhD recently earned her PhD in Biomedical Informatics from @RutgersU 🇺🇸. She's experienced working in health-focused environments providing data expertise to improve patient outcomes. She's also a data science lecturer @nyuniversity!

Seble Negatu (@simplyseble) is an Immunology PhD student at @Penn 🇺🇸 and a former PREP scholar @UofR. She uses bioinformatics to study emerging viruses with a focus on host-pathogen interactions during viral infection.

Jasmine Mack, MPH (@Jasamack) received a Masters in Public Health from @BUSPH w/focus in maternal-child health & biostatistics + a BS from @EmoryUniversity in Biology, Psychology, & Linguistics. She now studies genetic variation related to disparities in maternal health outcomes.

Naila Adam is a PhD student in Genome Science and Technology/Single Cell Genomics @UBC in 🇨🇦!

Day 4!

Meet Nur Shahir, PhD (@GiGiomics; nmshahir.com) a postdoc @penn_state and alum of @UNC's Bioinformatics & Computational Biology program. She earned a BS in Mathematics from @MIT + an MS from @UMBC in Biostats. Hear her journey & why she joined BWCB👇🏾

Kimberly Deas (@DataKimist) is a co-founder of @BlackTIDES1, Health Data Scientist, and PhD candidate @RutgersU in Biomedical Informatics. She's interested in addressing health disparities in cancer and HIV, morbidity, and mortality. Learn more at datakimist.blogspot.com

Gabrielle Dotson (@gabdotson) is a PhD candidate @UMich in Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics. She received her bachelor's from @Stanford in Biomedical Engineering & completed a genomics postbac @genome_gov. She's interested in genomics in cancer + the immune system.

Ilenna Jones (@IlennaJ) is a PhD Candidate @Penn 🇺🇸 in the Neuroscience program. She received her BS in Neuroscience from @dartmouth and now works at the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning. She's also an active volunteer for @neuromatch.

Lindsay Hopson is a Master's student @GWtweets 🇺🇸 in Bioinformatics. She received her BS in Interdisciplinary Bioinformatics from @MarquetteU and now analyzes metagenomics data & creates predictive ML models for how interventions change the gut microbiome in disease.

Christiana Chinedu Awajimimam John (@MimamKristina) is an undergrduate Biomedical Technology major @uniport in 🇳🇬. She got into data science as a biologist when a #mentor pointed out that she has a natural ability for finding patterns around her. She's now exploring more #compbio

Claudinéia Costa, PhD (@claupcosta) is a postdoc @UCRiverside 🇺🇸 and received her PhD in Genetics from @usponline in 🇧🇷. Part of her work involves using behavioral transcriptomics to understand how sensory diffs are shaped in 🐝s and how it impacts 🌼 visitation/pollination!

Day 5!

Kalen Clifton (@kalen_clifton) is a PhD Student at @JHUBME 🇺🇸 and @NSFGRFP Fellow. She received her BS in Applied Math with a focus on Math Bio from @wwilliamandmary and now builds computational models of human hearts to predict how they operate in health and disease!

Alexis Thornton (@AlexisThornton_ ) is a Bioinformatics PhD student @ucsc in @TheBrooksLab 🇺🇸. She earned her BS in bio @UF & is now interested in using/creating bioinformatics tools to understand the role of alt. splicing in cancer + identify biomarkers for immunotherapies.

Angela Brooks, PhD (PI: @TheBrooksLab) is an Assistant Prof. of Biomolecular Engineering @ucsc. She completed her postdoc @DanaFarber/@broadinstitute and is an expert in the area of RNA splicing regulation and high-throughout transcriptome seq analysis in cancer.

Register today for Dr. Brooks' and Alexis' joint #BlackInCompBio Seminar happening Thursday, January 28th at 1:00 pm ET at blackwomencompbio.org/event-details/…

Blessing Kolawole is a PhD Student in Computer Science @TuftsUniversity 🇺🇸 where she also earned an MS in Comp Sci. Blessing is an @AnitaB_org-@ghc Scholar with comp bio experience spanning interactive data analysis on the outcome of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated DSB repair mechanisms.

Paula Littlejohn, MHS (@PaulaLittlej) is from 🇯🇲 and is a PhD Candidate @UBC in 🇨🇦 studying the impact of micronutrient deficiency on the gut microbiome. She's passionate about dispelling the myths around race and health using multi-omics research.

Nadia Harerimana (@NHarerimana) is from🇷🇼 & a PhD student in Genetics & Molecular Bio @EmoryUniversity 🇺🇸. She earned her BA in Human Ecology from @collegeatlantic, was a @jacksonlab intern, & now applies bioinformatics & statistical methods to neurodegenerative disease research.

We're on the last day of highlights (for now)! Please know we have a bunch more members you can get to know on our website at blackwomencompbio.org/connect.

Let's get started for today.

Lisa-Monique Edward (@_LisaMonique) is from 🇱🇨 and a recent @westernuScience 🇨🇦 grad w/a BMSc in Computational Biochem. She's now a Bioinformatician at @SickKidsNews in Toronto where she works to integrate NGS into clinical pediatric oncology care. Next stop: MD/PhD applications!

Belinda Akpa, PhD (PI: @EmrLab) is a Senior Scientist @ORNL & joint Assoc. Prof @UTKnoxville 🇺🇸. She received her PhD and BS in ChemE from @Cambridge_Uni 🇬🇧 & now focuses her work on computational systems physiology. She will deliver a #BlackInCompBio Seminar in February!

Genevieve Baddoo is currently a Bioinformatics Master's student @LoyolaChicago 🇺🇸, where she also received her BS in Biology. She's excited about microbial genomics and uses both wet-lab and computational approaches to examine bacteria and their genomes. 📰mra.asm.org/content/ga/8/3…

Casey Overby-Taylor, PhD (@coverbytaylor) is a BWCB Advisory Board member & Asst. Prof of Medicine & Bioeng. @JohnsHopkins 🇺🇸. Her postdoc was in Informatics @Columbia thru @NLM_NIH. She works to incorporate tech & digital approaches into clinical research & healthcare practices.

Candace Clark, MS is working on her 2nd Master's degree now at @SFSU 🇺🇸 in Microbiology. She uses bioinformatics to study antibiotic resistance sequence types!

Tracy Johnson, PhD (@TheTracyLab) is a BWCB Advisory Board member & Professor of Cell, Molec., & Dev Bio & is now Dean of Life Sciences @UCLA 🇺🇸. She's an expert in researching gene regulation, chromatin mods, RNA splicing & how splicing reg allows cells to respond to their env.

Vivian Chebii, PhD (@vivienne_joe) is a doctoral fellow in Bioinformatics at the @ILRI in 🇰🇪 + a PhD student. She received her MS in bioinformatics from Fujian Agr. & Forestry Uni 🇨🇳. Her research interests are big data, genomic epidemiology, metagenomics & evolutionary genomics.

Virginiah Kengara (@virgyperry) is a graduate of @uonbi 🇰🇪 in Microbiology/Biotech. She's currently a Bioinformatics intern @icipe in Kenya and uses her excitement for software development to answer questions in molecular biology.

Margaret Chifwete (@moseleychichi) is a graduate of @MMUST_Kenya 🇰🇪 where she received her BSc in Biotechnology. She's currently a Bioinformatics intern @icipe in Kenya and was a former post-graduate diploma student & intern @KEMRI_Wellcome.