Fractional / interim leadership

Embedded, part-time Head/VP of Data Science for biotech companies that need senior leadership without a full-time hire.

Hourly advisory

Strategy sessions and technical review on data science, computational biology, and team-building questions.

Project-based engagements

Scoped projects such as a data science org build-out plan, computational pipeline audit, or genomics data strategy.

VP, Head of Data Sciences — Neumora Therapeutics

2020–2026

Led a cross-functional data science, ML, and computational biology team spanning the full drug discovery/development pipeline, from target discovery through Phase 3 neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative trials. Co-inventor on multiple clinical ML and therapeutic-use patents. Developed fit-for-purpose development strategies to enhance drug response and reduce placebo response using wide array of data modalities.

Group Leader, Data Science & Lead Investigator — Lieber Institute for Brain Development

2013–2020

Built and led a lab of 10+ scientists studying the genomics of brain development and severe mental illness. Principal Investigator on 10 NIH grants totaling $20M+. Published 145+ research articles (H-index 65).

Professor (Adjunct) — Johns Hopkins University

2013–Present

Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Neuroscience

Causal machine learning to predict drug (or placebo) response

Developed and applied a causal modeling framework for reducing placebo response and increasing trial-level efficacy in neuropsychiatry clinical trials.

Spatial transcriptomics of the human brain

Used spatial transcriptomics (10x Visium) to map layer-specific gene expression across the six layers of the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, linked laminar signatures to risk genes, and built an unsupervised clustering framework and public web app (spatialLIBD) for exploring the data.

Modeling maturation and disease biology using iPSC-derived neurons

Developed computational tools to assess the maturity of iPSC-derived neurons using transcriptomics and electrophysiology, and identified deficits in schizophrenia.

Genotype-phenotype mapping in the human brain

Leveraged human postmortem brain tissue and cellular models to identify molecular mechanisms and signatures related to the causes and consequences of severe mental illness.

DNA methylation analyses of heterogeneous tissues

Developed statistical strategies and software for analyzing DNA methylation data from mixtures of cell types.

Single-nucleus RNA sequencing of the human brain

Created a single-nucleus RNA-sequencing resource of 70,615 high-quality nuclei to generate a molecular taxonomy of cell types across five human brain regions that serve as key nodes of the human brain reward circuitry.