This talk with Dr. Amanda Myers—the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory for Functional Neurogenomics, with co-appointments in the Division of Neuroscience, the Department of Human Genetics and Genomics, and the Center on Aging—offered a glimpse of how her career developed and some valuable practical advice on crafting your own career as a data scientist.

TALK TITLE:  The Human Brainome: Genome, Transcriptome, Proteome and Phenome Interaction in Human Cortex  Dr. Myers’ hypothesis is that changes in gene and protein expression are crucial to the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Previously she examined how DNA alleles control the downstream expression of RNA transcripts and how those relationships are changed in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Myers has examined how proteins are incorporated into networks in two separate series and evaluated her outputs in two different cell lines. This lecture will present both the data pipeline as well as the outcomes from these studies. At the conclusion of this discussion, participants will be able to interpret the concepts behind expression quantitative trait loci analysis, compare the differences between single-target eQTL and network effects analysis, and describe new Alzheimer’s risk targets and the evidence for their nomination.

This talk took place on Thursday, April 28, 4:00-5:00 PM via Zoom.

About Amanda

Dr. Amanda Myers has been studying neuroscience since 1993 and human neurogenetics since 1995.

She received her PhD (“The search for novel loci involved in late onset Alzheimer’s disease”) from Washington University in St Louis in May of 2002. While at Washington University, she won a John Merlie Fellowship, an Alzheimer’s Disease Director’s Education Award, and was a finalist for the O’Leary Prize for outstanding research in neuroscience.

She performed her postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics at the National Institute of Health under the supervision of Dr. John Hardy and was funded by the National Academy of Sciences during that time. She was nominated for a distinguished mentor award during her postdoctoral work.

Dr. Myers has received support from the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, and the State of Florida. Her current research involved looking at transcript and protein expression in the cortex and how that is potentially controlled by DNA variants both in normal and Alzheimer’s disease brains.

Disclosure:  Dr. Myers has indicated that she has no relevant financial relationship with commercial interests.

About Meet a Data Scientist

The Meet a Data Scientist Lecture Series is a chance to get up-close and personal with top-level experts in a wide variety of fields that use data science.  The purpose of this series is to introduce the people behind the data, their lives, interests, career choices, their work, and their passion for how they use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields.  Join us as we peer behind the curtain and meet the data scientists behind the data! This lecture series is co-sponsored by the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and is free and open to the public.