Madeline Rea

Madeline Rea is excited to begin her graduate studies as a first-year PhD student in the Center for Computational Molecular Biology. She graduated with B.S. degrees in Neuroscience and Data Science from the University of Michigan, along with a minor in Writing. For her Neuroscience thesis, she developed neuromorphological algorithms in the Kwan Lab and for her Data Science thesis, she reconstructed polygenic risk scores in simulated populations under Professor Terhorst. She also interned in the Munger Lab in Bar Harbor, Maine, as part of the 2024 Jackson Laboratory Summer Student Program cohort. For her graduate studies, she's interested in examining the intersections between genetic diversity and global health, and will be exploring labs as a CCMB rotation student. Outside of research, Madeline enjoys making zines, ice skating, playing video games, writing, and is slowly but surely learning to sew.

Junbong Jang

Junbong Jang is a first-year PhD student in Computational Biology at Brown University. His research focuses on developing interpretable computational models to understand how cellular states evolve during disease progression and in response to perturbations.

Junbong earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. His previous research includes developing deep learning methods for live-cell segmentation and contour tracking, as well as methods for diagnosing kidney and gallbladder diseases using ultrasound imaging. Before joining Brown, he worked at a surgical robotics startup in South Korea, where he developed computer vision and sensor-fusion technologies to improve surgical precision.

This fall, Junbong will rotate with Professor Ying Ma. He is excited to return to academia and collaborate with the CCMB community, while exploring Rhode Island. Outside of research, he enjoys hiking, cooking, and watching movies.

Bohoon Shim

Boohoon Shim earned a bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Following his undergraduate studies, he worked as a postbaccalaureate researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Catherine Wu Lab, where he contributed to projects evaluating the efficacy of cancer vaccine clinical trials and developing computational methods to identify novel therapeutic targets.

These experiences led Bohoon to pursue research focused on developing computational approaches for discovering therapeutic targets through next-generation sequencing. He is particularly interested in the unannotated genome and transcriptome, especially novel transcripts and peptides arising from transposable element expression and other noncanonical genomic regions. He hopes to better understand how these molecules contribute to disease and whether they can serve as novel antigen targets for immunotherapy.

Originally from South Korea, he is excited to explore the collaborative research environment at CCMB and become part of the Brown community. Outside of research, he enjoys playing golf, soccer and working out.