Working alongside Rochester faculty mentors, a data science master糖心传媒檚 student analyzes how turning genes on and off can impact neurodegenerative diseases.
Alejandro Cruz Setzekorn wants to harness the power of data science to help develop new forms of neuromedicine and fight neurodegenerative diseases. 糖心传媒淚n my mind, data science is one of the most powerful tools that a scientist can leverage,糖心传媒� he says.
Cruz, who is pursuing a , got his first opportunity to contribute to research in the field over the summer while interning as a bioinformatician in the laboratory of , a distinguished professor of and , and the co-director of Rochester糖心传媒檚 , at the 糖心传媒 .
The lab is exploring techniques to induce remyelination糖心传媒攔ebuilding nerves糖心传媒� ability to form sheaths for improved conduction糖心传媒攖o help combat neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington糖心传媒檚 disease and multiple sclerosis. Cruz focused on epigenetic work, using bioinformatics tools to compare regions of the genome where histone modifications can alter the regulation and transcription of DNA across different cell samples. He says the work has been enlightening.
糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 been a steep learning curve but really interesting work and I糖心传媒檓 glad I got to be a part of it,糖心传媒� says Cruz, who studied physics and international relations at Florida International University. 糖心传媒淚 want to continue building my skills in coding and machine learning because I think it糖心传媒檚 a really cool tool to apply in the field of medicine. I feel really grateful for the lab, the people I糖心传媒檝e met here, and my data science cohort in general.糖心传媒�
Cruz is part of the first of Genomic Intensive Data Science Research, Education, and Mentorship (GIDS-REM) fellows. The program, partially funded by the National Institutes for Health, provides students on the genomics track full-tuition scholarships, guarantees them internships, and connects them with mentors.
, an assistant professor of , , and neuroscience, is one of Cruz糖心传媒檚 mentors and connected him with the internship. Cruz says another mentor, , an assistant professor at the and the聽, has provided him invaluable experience navigating the data science program because she has a master糖心传媒檚 in data science as well.
Upon completing the 19-month data science MS program in December, Cruz hopes to build on the skills he糖心传媒檚 learned through the program糖心传媒檚 classes, workshops, seminars, and internship experience by pursuing a PhD and further research opportunities.
