Jenea I. Adams
It's pronounced jen-AY.
Creator. Computational Biologist. Community Architect.
Founder and Executive Director, The Black Women in Computational Biology Network
"I'm researching how fruit flies may hold the answer to stopping cancer growth."
Dr. Madhuri Kango-Singh, Ph.D. Lab, University of Dayton, 2019
Excited about transcriptomics, RNA biology, and computational method development in biomedical research and the artistry at the intersection of biology, data science, and computer science
ABOUT
Janssen Oncology Scholar, Penn Presidential PhD Fellow and PhD candidate in Genomics and Computational Biology. Experienced in developing and improving computational tools that leverage RNA biology for targeted cancer immunotherapy. Recognized community advocate for minoritized computational biologists.
EDUCATION
2019 - Present
University of Pennsylvania
Perelman School of Medicine
Doctorate of Philosophy in Genomics and Computational Biology
2019 - Present
University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School
Dual Master of Arts in Statistics and Data Science
2015 - 2019
University of Dayton
Bachelor's Degree in Biology; Computer Science minor
PUBLICATIONS
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Jenea I. Adams, Taylor Ferebee, Melyssa Minto, Kayla Pennerman, Nyasha Chambwe. 10 Simple Rules for Creating a Global Network in Computational Biology. (2022)
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Yuanyuan Wang, Yan Gao, Jenea I. Adams, Kathryn Kadash-Edmondson, Yi Xing. rMATS-turbo: an ultra-fast computational platform for comprehensive alternative splicing analysis on large-scale RNA-Seq dataset (manuscript in review)
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Little, M.N., Custer, K.W., Borth, E.B. et al. The influence of riparian invasion by the terrestrial shrub Lonicera maackii on aquatic macroinvertebrates in temperate forest headwater streams. Biol Invasions (2020). https://doi-org /10.1007/s10530-020-02349-8 (Acknowledged for contributions)
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Kukla MJ, Kuminecz C, Maloney ME, Murphy J, Buskey TM, Adams JI, Little MN, Borth EB, Sparbanie TM, Mahoney SD, Custer KW, Chapman JI, McEwan RW. Macroinvertebrates. 2018. Data files. 26. https://doi.org/10.26890/amur.wxsk7qn6bd
FEATURED
RESEARCH
EXPERIENCE
Jul 2020 - Present
PhD Thesis Research
Thesis Advisor: Yi Xing, PhD
My doctoral research explores the development of new genomics and bioinformatics tools, informed by RNA biology, to improve cancer treatment options with targeted immunotherapies.
During my rotation, I employed computational tools developed in the lab (e.g., rMATS, IRIS) to investigate alternative splicing in pediatric and adult AML data to reveal novel targets of CAR-T cell receptor-mediated immunotherapy.
Jan 2022 - Present
MA Thesis Research
Thesis Advisor: Nancy Zhang, PhD
My master’s research is focused on characterizing and developing statistical pipelines for the analysis of high-dimensional single-cell long-read RNA sequencing data in cancer. I am currently evaluating methods and applications of splicing quantification of full-length isoforms at the single cell level
Mar 2020 - Jun 2020
Rotation Lab PI: Ophir Shalem, PhD
Researched computational approaches, including deep-learning methods, for cellular image analysis of protein localization patterns in healthy and diseased neurons from public and in-house databases.
Sep 2019 - Dec 2019
Rotation Lab PI: Li San Wang, PhD
Investigated the gene regulatory role of long non-coding RNAs by developing a novel computational method to quantify genome-wide co-expression patterns using large transcriptomic and epigenomic datasets.
Aug 2018 - May 2019
Undergraduate Lab PI: Madhuri Kango-Singh, PhD
Research Assitant in Cancer Genetics
Worked with a team of geneticists to computationally and experimentally unravel the proteomics and mechanisms of cancer targets on gliomas in fruit fly models.
May 2018 - Aug 2018
PI: Ivet Bahar, PhD
Bioinformatics Intern vis TECBio REU @ Pitt
Developed a bioinformatics pipeline to investigate the competency of using protein “sensors” and “effectors” to predict protein-protein interfaces. With mentorship from Carnegie Mellon-University of Pittsburgh Computational Biology postdocs, the findings positively influenced the research direction of an Ivet Bahar lab project.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
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Inaugural 2020 Penn Presidential Ph.D. Fellow
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Inaugural Janssen Global Scholar of Oncology (funded fellowship)
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2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention
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Founder and Director of the Black Women in Computational Biology Network (501c3 pending)
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Founding Program Co-Director of the fully-funded Penn Summer CompBio Preview
INTERNATIONAL INVITED TALKS
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July 2022
NIH HuBMAP Summer Internship Panelist
Pathways to Graduate School
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July 2022
Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology- Bioinformatics Open Science Conference
Building and Maintaining Inclusive Open Science Panel-
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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April 2021
WNYC Science Friday
Identity in STEM, in Collaboration with LSAMP-
Virtually in Oregon, USA
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March 2021
Women in Data Science International Conference
Women in Data Science Africa
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August 2020
American Chemical Society Fall 2020 National Meeting
Committee on Minority Affairs Symposium on Diversity in STEM-
Originally in San Francisco, USA, now virtual due to Covid-19
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July 2020
Inaugural Meeting On Systems, Biogeography, and Evolution
Creating a Seat at the Table: The Philosophy of The Black Women in Computational Biology Network
Gender and Diversity in STEMM Series Keynote
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July 2020
International Society for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
Wednesday Lunch and Learn: Introducing The Black Women in Computational Biology Network-
Originally in Montreal, Canada, now virtual due to Covid-19
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July 2020
International Society for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics Student Council Symposium
Introducing The Black Women in Computational Biology Network-
Originally in Montreal, Canada, now virtual due to Covid-19
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SKILLS & EXPERTISE
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Creative Engineering
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Web Design and Development
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Photography
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HTML 5/CSS 3 *
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JavaScript*
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PHP*
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MySQL*
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Programming, Computational Biology & Statistics
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Biological data science
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Translational research
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Interdisciplinary teaching and dynamic curriculum development
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Python
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R
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Java
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Community Architect
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Public speaking
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Equity-focused community development
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Inclusive STEM pedagogy development
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* = Beginner