Jacob M. Luber

Jacob M. Luber

Advisor: Meromit Singer
Jacob M. Luber

Tell us a bit about yourself.


I am working in Aleksandar Kostic’s lab interrogating interactions between the gut microbiome and host in the context of metabolism and immunity. In my free time, I enjoy wilderness backpacking.

 

What is your academic background? What research experience did you have before grad school?

 

I majored in Computer Science at Trinity University. My undergraduate thesis research was conducted under Matt Hibbs on osteoblast development and bone maintenance in Mus musculus where I focused on methods to consider tissue context specificity properly when using machine learning to make gene-gene functional relationship predictions. Additionally, from 2015 to 2016 I worked in Carol Bult’s on the Patient Derived Xenograft (PDX) project at The Jackson Laboratory where I built a data-mining pipeline that aims to better subtype Triple Negative Breast Cancer tumors and computationally predict chemotherapy drug response in them.

 

What is your research area and why is it exciting?

 

I utilize emerging meta`omic data collection and analysis techniques to inform experimental design and ultimately answer challenging questions like "Does the metabolism of microbes in the human gut potentially affect athletic performance" and "Does the microbiome affect the ability of islet cells to evade immune surveillance in patients with type 1 diabetes?".

 

Why did you choose BIG?

 

Going into grad school, I did not really know what specific area of genomics I wanted to focus my thesis research on. The huge breadth of faculty available to work with at Harvard and all of the affiliated teaching hospitals guarantee that whatever you become interested in during your graduate coursework, you can work with one of the top 5 people in the world in that area.

 

How do you like living in Boston? What do you do when you are not working?

 

Boston is a great albeit expensive place to live! I especially enjoy going to the Boston Symphony Orchestra (free season tickets provided by the medical school) and am currently working my way through climbing (including snowshoeing in the winter) all 48 peaks higher than 4000 feet in the white mountains (to facilitate outdoor activities you can rent cars for leisure activities through the Harvard Hertz account for 70% off + have the under 25 rental surcharge waived).

 

What advice would you give to college students who are interested in a PhD in genomics/bioinformatics?

 

It is far easier to learn biology in graduate school after having focused on quantitative/computational courses as an undergraduate rather than the other way around.

Contact Information

Hometown: San Antonio, Texas

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