معرفی
Andreas Pfenning is an Assistant Professor in the Ray and Stephanie Lane Computational Biology Department at Carnegie Mellon University, affiliated with the Neuroscience Institute. His research focuses on computational and genomic approaches to understand how genome sequence influences neural cells, circuits, disease, and behavior. Key areas include Alzheimer’s disease, epigenetics of aging, and evolutionary mechanisms of vocal learning across species. Pfenning leads the Neurogenomics Laboratory, leveraging AI and machine learning to analyze genomic data from mammals, birds, and primates.
Education: PhD in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (Duke University), BS in Computer Science (Carnegie Mellon University, 2006). Postdoctoral training at MIT and Harvard Medical School with Dr. Manolis Kellis.
Research Interests:
- Genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of neurological disorders
- Evolutionary genomics of vocal learning
- Single-cell transcriptomics in brain disorders
- Machine learning for genomic analysis
Notable Projects:
- Developing tools like TACIT to identify conserved regulatory elements
- Collaborations on the Zoonomia Project and CIRCUITS Alzheimer’s initiative
- Epigenetic basis of aging and neurodegeneration
Awards & Funding:
- NSF CAREER Award (2021)
- Okawa Foundation Research Grant (2016)
- NIH BRAIN Initiative Grant ($6.8M, 2022)
- Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Collaboration (2017)
Lab & Students: Mentors students like Daniel Schaffer (Phi Beta Kappa), Ruby Redlich (Goldwater Scholar), and BaDoi Phan (NIH NIDA Fellow). Active in training undergraduates through programs like SURF and CMU’s Computational Biology Undergraduate Program.
