Member since October 2024
Lorena Pantano serves as the Director of the Bioinformatics Platform at Harvard Chan Bioinformatics Core. She is responsible for leading the integration of new technologies to expedite the decision-making process in research projects for HCBC collaborators. With 13 years of experience in computational biology, Lorena has established herself as a visionary leader in the field, excelling in genomic and data visualization to accelerate decision-making processes. Lorena's educational background is in Biochemistry, and she holds a Ph.D. in Biomedicine. During that time, she developed the first tool for discovering small ncRNAs in brain samples using NGS data. Following this, Lorena utilized her genomics expertise to conduct research at the Harvard School of Public Health for 5 years. In 2019, she transitioned to the biotech industry and has worked with innovative companies since, such as cell gene-editing of pig genomes for xenotransplantation at eGenesis, and target discovery of novel non-coding RNA at NextRNA. Additionally, in 2016, Lorena founded the 'Women in Bioinformatics' Meetup, aimed at fostering collaboration and networking in the computational biology field in the Boston area. In her free time, she meets other women in the field to support them in any way they need, as a mentor, colleague, and friend.
Bringing innovation to people to improve their lives. Spending time in a bookstore. Watching women on leadership positions changing the world in a different way.
My journey as the daughter of a multiple myeloma patient (my mom) who almost died because of the enormous gap between current technology and its translation to hospitals and patients. She is alive, but her life is very different, and the psychological burden to adapt to this new life is equally mentally dangerous for her and for us, her family. It is so easy to detect the biomarker of MM with just a blood test, but it is not implemented because the percentage of developing MM even after having that marker detected is not clear yet. Still, when there are specific symptoms and you have that marker, you should get a PET scan. If you get a positive PET scan result that will give you time to get treatment before your life changes completely. That is the story I want to share because it can be any of us, and even if the percentage is low, everybody deserves opportunities to life healthy.
I was born in Argentina. When I was 5 years old, my parents moved to a small town in Granada, Spain. I went to college to specialize in Biochemistry. After that, I moved to Barcelona for my Master's and PhD in bioinformatics. During that time, I created tools to understand new technologies and gene regulation in mental disorders. In 2014, I moved to Boston to work as a staff scientist at Harvard Chan School, where I made wonderful connections. I later transitioned to BioTech, where I learned how to bridge the gap between science and business. Currently, I am back at Harvard, working closer to the innovation side of the biotech journey. Interestingly, I achieved all this without knowing I have ADHD, which was recently diagnosed. My fuel is my passion for science and people.
The Harvard Chan Bioinformatics Core is transitioning to nf-core, a complex process for our organization. In this presentation, we outline the rationale behind this migration, elucidate the challenges we are encountering, and delineate our roadmap toward community-wide adoption, drawing upon our experiences with the Bcbio platform.
My journey as the daughter of a multiple myeloma patient (my mom) who almost died because of the enormous gap between current technology and its translation to hospitals and patients. She is alive, but her life is very different, and the psychological burden to adapt to this new life is equally mentally dangerous for her and for us, her family. It is so easy to detect the biomarker of MM with just a blood test, but it is not implemented because the percentage of developing MM even after having that marker detected is not clear yet. Still, when there are specific symptoms and you have that marker, you should get a PET scan. If you get a positive PET scan result that will give you time to get treatment before your life changes completely. That is the story I want to share because it can be any of us, and even if the percentage is low, everybody deserves opportunities to life healthy.
I was born in Argentina. When I was 5 years old, my parents moved to a small town in Granada, Spain. I went to college to specialize in Biochemistry. After that, I moved to Barcelona for my Master's and PhD in bioinformatics. During that time, I created tools to understand new technologies and gene regulation in mental disorders. In 2014, I moved to Boston to work as a staff scientist at Harvard Chan School, where I made wonderful connections. I later transitioned to BioTech, where I learned how to bridge the gap between science and business. Currently, I am back at Harvard, working closer to the innovation side of the biotech journey. Interestingly, I achieved all this without knowing I have ADHD, which was recently diagnosed. My fuel is my passion for science and people.
The Harvard Chan Bioinformatics Core is transitioning to nf-core, a complex process for our organization. In this presentation, we outline the rationale behind this migration, elucidate the challenges we are encountering, and delineate our roadmap toward community-wide adoption, drawing upon our experiences with the Bcbio platform.