Jason McDermott

Jason McDermott is a senior research scientist and Team Lead for Systems Biology at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), with an Affiliate Associate Professor appointment in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). His work bridges computational and experimental biology, focusing on data integration, network analysis, and systems-level understanding of biological processes.

McDermott earned his BA in Biology from Reed College in 1993, PhD in Structural Virology from OHSU in 2000, and completed post-doctoral training in Bioinformatics at the University of Washington in 2006. His research spans cancer biology, host-pathogen interactions, microbiome science, and computational prediction of protein functions.

His work integrates high-throughput omics data to develop systems biology models, with particular emphasis on biomarker discovery, network inference, and pathway analysis. Recent publications demonstrate his leadership in applying multi-omics approaches to understand viral infections, soil microbial communities, cancer mechanisms, and metabolic diseases.

His research portfolio shows consistent focus on developing computational methods for biological data integration and analysis, with applications across diverse domains from infectious disease to cancer biology and environmental microbiology.

• 1997 Sears Fellowship Award (OHSU)
• 1998 Tartar Fellowship Award (OHSU)
• 2008 Analytics Challenge Winner (Supercomputing 2008)

McDermott actively collaborates with experimental biologists, statisticians, and mass spectrometrists to develop and apply computational methods. He has made significant contributions to the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), particularly in ovarian cancer research, where he serves as chair of both the biology working group and data analysis working group. His work often involves interdisciplinary teams focused on translating computational insights into biological understanding.