SAFARI Live Seminar - Opportunities and challenges of computational data-driven immunology

Title: Opportunities and challenges of computational data-driven immunology
Speaker: Serghei Mangul, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy, USC School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California

SAFARI Live Seminar Series Summer 2021 Talk #13

Abstract:
During the past decade, the rapid advancement of high-throughput technologies has reshaped modern immunology by vastly extending the diversity, richness, and availability of data and methods across various domains. Currently, computational researchers are empowered with data, methods, and tools that allow for the possibility of making important contributions to understanding fundamental aspects of immunology in human health and disease. Here we discuss the challenges and pitfalls computational researchers are facing and how they are gaining independence and leading high-impact projects in immunology. Additionally, we discuss the lack of diversity in current immunogenetics studies and how this problem can be addressed using computational data-driven approaches. Current immunogenomics studies have been largely limited to individuals of European ancestry, restricting the ability to identify variation in human adaptive immune responses across populations. The inclusion of a greater diversity of individuals in immunogenomics studies will substantially enhance our understanding of the human immune system.

Bio:
Dr. Mangul is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. His lab designs, develops and applies novel and robust data-driven, computational approaches that will accelerate the diffusion of genomics and biomedical data into translational research and education. His lab believes in data analysis transparency, effective sharing, reproducibility, software usability, and archival stability to foster a sustainable data science ecosystem in biomedical research. He holds a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Georgia State University. Dr. Mangul obtained B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Moldova State University, Chisinau, Moldova. He completed postdoctoral training with Prof. Eleazar Eskin in computational genomics at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award.