Ryan M
- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at University of Wisconsin - Madison

Expertise

biology, biotech, genetics, computational biology, bioinformatics

Bio

Hi! My name is Ryan and I'm in my fourth year of my PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research is focused on using computational biology to understand how plants from harsh environments have evolved to grow well in their native habitats. Half of my time at work is spent programming, and the other half is spent taking care of my plants and using various molecular biology techniques to study them. The best part of comp bio is that you don't need a lab to perform research, and there is tons of publicly available data that you can repurpose for your own research interests. I have plenty of ideas regarding manageable, practical research projects that can get you started in research. Happy to chat more! In my free time, I enjoy going to concerts, weekend trips to Chicago, and just hanging out with my friends.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

What makes your favorite microbe so special?

Get experience understanding how genes and genomes allow certain bacteria to thrive in certain environments and others to struggle. - Develop your own hypothesis on which traits may help your microbe of interest! out compete others. - Learn where to find genomes and how to interpret their gene content using data science methods and (free & user-friendly) publicly available genomics tools! - Compare your microbe's genome to other microbe genomes and determine if your hypothesis is supported by your comparative genomic analysis! All of these things are essential parts of every day life of a researcher. Learning how to conduct this work is invaluable for getting started conducting actual research.

Coding skills

Python, R, Bash

Teaching experience

I have previously taught undergraduate students as a teaching assistant for an introductory general genetics course. This involved running discussion sections to go over lecture material as well as teaching students how to work through genetics problem sets. I have also mentored students (in-person) in the lab, and taught them the fundamentals of experiment design and lab techniques required to work in a molecular biology laboratory. These students are now able to run experiments independently and assist me in my own research.

Credentials

Work experience

Zymergen Inc (2018 - 2021)

Research Associate III

United States Department of Agriculture (2016 - 2018)

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Education

University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley)

BS Bachelor of Science (2018)

Environmental Sciences

University of Wisconsin - Madison

MS Master of Science (2023)

Genetics