Natalie D
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at University of California San Diego (UCSD)
Expertise
Medicine, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Data Science
Bio
I am a Biomedical Sciences / Bioinformatics PhD candidate at the University of California (UC) San Diego where I study highly prevalent complex metabolic disorders including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. To better understand, diagnose, and treat these diseases, I utilize human genetics to identify important disease-related genes which may be potential drug targets or may provide insights into disease mechanisms. In order to work with diverse and extremely large human genetic datasets, I apply data science techniques (data cleaning, computing, and visualization) combined with biological and clinical knowledge to uncover new genetic discoveries with implications for metabolic disease advancement. Outside of research, I enjoy several activities including rock climbing and hiking!Project ideas
Identification and Prioritization of Novel Type 2 Diabetes Genes
With the advent of the internet and data sharing platforms, several public human genetic databases have been established (i.e. GWAS Catalog, Common Metabolic Disease Knowledge Portal) in which scientific researchers have deposited their research findings for others to examine. Much of this data remains under-utilized but researchers still continue to add more data to these databases. In this potential project, one could aggregate the genetic findings from type 2 diabetes studies from existing public databases to identify and prioritize novel genes of interest which may be play crucial roles in type 2 diabetes development. Such a project could also extend to different diseases, depending on the student's research interests!