UF Genetics and Genomics student, Dan Stribling, has been awarded a UF Informatics Institute Graduate Fellowship. This is a two-year graduate fellowship designed to promote interdisciplinary research in data science and informatics in a target discipline of the UF Informatics Institute such as the biomedical and life sciences. Stribling received the award to support a novel informatics project in the Renne Lab, entitled: “Enabling miRNA Discovery through a Novel Hybrid Sequence Analysis Method for High-Throughput Ribonomics Datasets.”
The Renne Laboratory investigates the role of noncoding RNA (ncRNA) in the gammaherpesvirus family of viruses, with a specific focus on the cancer-causing Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV) that was discovered during the AIDS epidemic, Stribling said.
“My work with the Renne Lab focuses on the development of novel computational methods for discovery in noncoding RNA research,” Stribling said. “This includes working to unlock the potential of the qCLASH technique for providing information on miRNA targeting and regulation, and the application of systems biology approaches to multi-omics datasets in KSHV research.”
Stribling expressed that he is very grateful for this opportunity and will use the award to further his research.
“With the support of this fellowship, I will develop the prototype methods for miRNA-discovery from qCLASH data into a robust and transparent toolkit for use by the multi-disciplinary array of researchers who utilize the qCLASH technique,” Stribling said. “This fellowship will enable multiple future collaborations with researchers from across the medical and life-science fields and spanning from UF to overseas, allowing cross-pollination of ideas and methodology for further discovery. Receiving this award provides a significant opportunity to further my education in data science by engaging with experts across the UF informatics community. I hope to learn from the cutting-edge informatics techniques in use across multiple disciplines and apply them to my research in computational genomics. I believe that this training will increase my capability as a researcher and benefit my future career as a physician scientist. I am very grateful to the UF Informatics Institute for its support of these goals.”
Stribling plans to graduate from the Genetics and Genomics Program in Spring of 2023 and stated that the collaborative nature of the program has provided him with many unique opportunities.
“The Genetics and Genomics Program provides a rigorous training in concepts of genetics and exposure to cutting edge techniques in genomics and bioinformatics,” Stribling said. “It also provides the opportunity to learn from and interact with a variety of research from across many health and life-sciences disciplines. Collaborating with other program students from these diverse fields has allowed me to learn scientific concepts that I may not have otherwise encountered, and has significantly enhanced my training in genetics. In addition, the program’s focus on integrative methods has allowed me to undertake interdisciplinary training in bioinformatics and computer science, which provides an excellent foundation for a future career focused on research in computational genomics.”
After completing his PhD, Stribling plans to return to the UF College of Medicine Medical Curriculum to complete his last two years of clinical training as a physician as a part of the UF MD-PhD Training Program.