Yared H Kidane

About

I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and a Master of Science degree in Information Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. I was an exchange student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Center for Collective Intelligence, where I worked on my masters thesis under the supervision of Dr. Peter A. Gloor. I joined Virginia Tech in August 2007 and received my Ph.D. in Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in May 2012. In my Ph.D. research, I worked on developing computational approaches to predict Host-Oriented Broad-Spectrum (HOBS) drug targets, under the supervision of Prof. T. M. Murali and Prof. Christopher Lawrence. HOBS drug targets are genes/proteins and biological processes in the host that can be targeted in order to decrease or stop pathogenesis or make the host more tolerant against multiple infections. 

Currently, I am a research scientist with Wyle working at NASA-Johnson Space Center in the Space Radiation Program unit. My group comprises of people with different expertise, from mathematical modelers, physicists, experimental biologist, to medical doctors working on different aspects of space radiation and its effects on astronauts' health. The interdisciplinary training that I received at Virgina Tech has helped me to effectively collaborate with people from varied education background. My other interests include jogging and sightseeing.