Chris Doering
Projects
Research Direction: Viral Flagging and Analysis in Metagenomic Sequencing
SecureBio Detection performs untargeted metagenomic sequencing from wastewater sites across the US, generating billions of reads each week. While we have established methods of identifying concerning viruses for human review and response, we are always interested in improving and expanding our capabilities. A mentee working with me could expect to work on projects related to one of the following subject areas:
Improving classification of viral reads from metagenomic sequencing libraries
Developing new methods for detection of concerning viruses
Leveraging our existing data to improve our understanding of virology more broadly
What I'm looking for in a Mentee
Someone a strong computational biology and bioinformatics background and with at least a general background in microbiology/virology. Experience working with MGS data is a plus.
What I'm like as a Mentor
A mentee should expect weekly check-ins and general directional oversight. I'm happy to hold additional ad hoc meetings, async check-ins, and talk through the nitty gritty details of specific parts of a project but would want my mentee to have the freedom to explore and implement without strict oversight.
Bio
I recently completed my PhD in Microbiology where I studied bacteria-infecting viruses and bacterial immune systems against viral infection. At SecureBio I work on the Detection team where I perform threat assessment and characterization of flagged viral sequences.
