Yishen Miao, MA

Education

• Biology, B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2015
• Biomedical Informatics, M.A., Columbia University, 2019
• Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Ph.D., UCSB, In Progress

I received my BA degree in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2015. During my time at UCSB, I worked under Dr. Donald Aue from the Chemistry Department for investigating the thermodynamic propriety of pyridine using computational chemistry; Dr. Cherie Briggs from EEMB for classifying algae species in water samples from Sierra Nevada; and Dr. Kathy Foltz from MCDB for the proteome phosphorylation dynamics during purple sea urchin egg fertilization.

Based on my experience in those vastly different disciplines, I decided to pursuit a MA degree in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University in the City of New York and received my degree in 2019.

During my time in New York, I improved my skills in statistics, computer science, and software developments. I worked under Dr. Lena Mamykina on type 2 diabetes patient self-management tools.

Finally I returned to UCSB in 2019 to pursue a PhD degree in MCDB. I am currently at Bill Smith lab, studying the gene expression changes between the developmental stages of the protochordate Ciona robusta. I am interested in applying computational methods in biology.