Research

Computational biology for infection, immunity, and extreme environments.

My work spans wet-lab immunology and dry-lab bioinformatics, with a focus on host–pathogen interactions, the microbiome, and human health in spaceflight and austere settings.

Research areas

Immunology & mucosal immunity
Mucosal immune responses and host–pathogen interactions, with bench experience in ELISA, cell culture, and immune profiling.
Neuroinflammation & neurodegeneration
Immune drivers of neuroinflammation and viral reactivation in Alzheimer’s disease, using astronaut and clinical omics datasets.
Microbiome & host–pathogen interactions
High-resolution microbiome profiling and functional prediction to dissect microbial contributions to systemic disease.
Glycobiology & glycan analysis
Computational analysis of glycan structures, 3D alignment, and similarity visualization to probe immune recognition.
Bioinformatics & computational biology
Reproducible pipelines for NGS, viral genomics, and microbiome analysis across Illumina, Nanopore, and PacBio platforms.
Gut–brain axis & immune signaling
How immune–microbial interactions influence brain function, from clinical settings to isolated operational environments.
Aerospace medicine & astronaut health
Human performance, countermeasures, and omics in microgravity and spaceflight analog environments.
Operational & remote medicine
Clinical decision-making under constraints, built through a high-difficulty rural placement in an isolated, high-altitude setting.

Projects

2024–present

VIRALL — viral detection and characterization across sequencing platforms

A workflow for viral detection and characterization that scales across sequencing platforms, applied to viral reactivation studies in Alzheimer’s disease.

Viral genomics
NGS
Alzheimer's disease

Illustration of a bacterium releasing DNA, representing microbiome sequencing.

2024–2025

MicroSeq16S Upgrade — reproducible microbiome pipeline

Methodological update and optimization of a bioinformatic pipeline for microbiome analysis in patients with systemic autoimmune diseases.

Microbiome
Snakemake
QIIME2

Diagram of a Gram-negative bacterium’s LPS coat with the International Space Station.

2025–present

Kalamiella piersonii — LPS adaptations in spaceflight

Comparative analysis of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) genes from Earth and International Space Station isolates of Kalamiella piersonii.

Comparative genomics
Spaceflight
LPS

A soft robotic exoskeleton supporting lower-limb muscle stimulation on a treadmill.

2019–2023

Biomedical soft robotic device for lower-limb rehabilitation

Design of a biomedical soft robotic device for lower-limb mechanical muscle rehabilitation and electrochemical monitoring under reduced-gravity space environments.