Todd Treangen

Todd Treangen is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Rice University, affiliated with the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing. He leads the Treangen Lab, focusing on computational methods for genomics and metagenomics, particularly in biosecurity, infectious disease monitoring, and microbial community dynamics. His research integrates algorithm design, machine learning, and open-source software development. Treangen holds a PhD from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain) and has been recognized with the NSF CAREER Award (2023). His work spans collaborations with institutions like the CDC, NIH, and NSF, addressing challenges in pathogen detection, antibiotic resistance, and real-time genomic surveillance. The lab develops tools like Emu, SeqScreen, and Parsnp, and actively engages in mentoring students and postdocs in interdisciplinary research.

Education: PhD in Computer Science (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 2008), MSc & BSc in Computer Science (2005, 2003). Research grants include CDC, NIH (NIA, NIAID), NSF (EF, IIS, SHF), and c3.ai DTI. His lab's activities include wastewater-based epidemiology, microbiome analysis, and pathogen forensics. Notable students include Bryce Kille (PhD candidate) and Yilei Fu (postdoc). The lab also emphasizes undergraduate training through initiatives like Genome Sleuths’24.

Key achievements include developing scalable core-genome alignment (Parsnp 2.0), long-read microbial profiling (Emu), and rapid pathogen screening (SeqScreen). Awards include the Europeus Doctor Distinction (2008) and NSF CAREER (2023). The Treangen Lab’s software tools are open-source, promoting accessibility in bioinformatics.