Noam G
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at Northeastern University
Expertise
Synthetic biology, computational biology, machine learning, systems biology
Bio
I am a Bioengineering PhD candidate at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, concentrating in Synthetic, Systems, and Computational Biology. My research focuses on building synthetic systems in bacteria in order to study complex processes that lead to the spread of infectious diseases. I develop large-scale data acquisition methods and computational pipelines for data analysis. I am interested in building models of different processes in bacteria to better understand how they work and to discover potential therapeutic targets. Outside of my research, I love to bake, travel, take dance classes, and spend time with family and friends. In the summer, I love to spend time outside and go to the beach. I recently adopted a cat as well so he keeps me occupied.Project ideas
What leads to antibiotic resistance in different types of bacterial infections?
Bacterial infections can be caused by various types of bacteria that have different characteristics. Based on the class the bacterium belongs to, different strategies may be used to treat the infection. However, for some types of infections, such as Tuberculosis and Strep, there are only a few remaining antibiotic medications that still work, in part due to the increase in resistance to existing antibiotics as the bacteria adapt. In this project, you will gather information on the various classes of bacteria, learn about the different strategies used to treat these different infections, and understand what leads to their antibiotic resistance. You will create a scientific research paper with a visual that combines your findings. You may also propose ideas for what could improve existing therapeutics or what kind of new strategies might work to treat infections instead.
Analyzing Next-Generation Sequencing data to find common sequences in various organisms
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) allows us to see very small differences in DNA sequences from very small amounts of DNA. As NGS becomes more popular, the number of publicly available sequencing datasets is growing, allowing us to ask questions about the DNA sequences of different organisms. In this project, you will choose any organisms that interest you -- they may be closely related with minor differences or seemingly very different -- and find commonalities and differences between them. You will start with a literature search based on your organisms of interest, find large sequencing datasets, and develop a computational script to compare the different sequences. You will become comfortable with different formats of sequencing files and finding similarities and differences based on DNA sequences. You will be able to summarize and present your findings in a concise essay and generalize your code to work with any organisms.