Michael Brent

Michael Brent is the Henry Edwin Sever Professor of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis's McKelvey School of Engineering, affiliated with the Department of Genetics and Division of Computational & Data Sciences. He holds a PhD and BS in Computer Science from MIT (1991, 1985). His research focuses on computational genomics, systems biology, and machine learning applications in biology, specifically modeling gene regulation networks and their implications for infectious disease and human genetics. He directs the Brent Lab, which integrates computational methods with molecular biology.

Education:

• PhD in Computer Science, MIT, 1991
• BS in Computer Science, MIT, 1985

Research Focus: Developing mathematical/computational frameworks to map gene regulation networks, model quantitative biological systems, and engineer synthetic networks in living cells. Recent work emphasizes transcription factor networks and NIH-funded studies on gene expression mechanisms.

Awards & Recognition:

• AAAS Fellow (2012)
• AIMBE College of Fellows (2017)

Grants & Labs: Secured NIH grants (e.g., 2018 grant on transcription factor binding) and leads the Brent Lab (http://mblab.wustl.edu), which bridges computational and experimental biology. Previously focused on computational linguistics before pivoting to computational biology in 1999.