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Jenea I. Adams

It's pronounced jen-AY.

Creator. Computational Biologist. Community Architect.

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"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.

about

EDUCATION

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2019 - Present

University of Pennsylvania

Perelman School of Medicine

Doctorate of Philosophy in Genomics and Computational Biology

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2019 - Present

University of Pennsylvania 

The Wharton School

Dual Master of Arts in Statistics and Data Science

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2015 - 2019

University of Dayton 

Bachelor's Degree in Biology; Computer Science minor 

education

PUBLICATIONS

  1. Jenea I. Adams, Taylor Ferebee, Melyssa Minto, Kayla Pennerman, Nyasha Chambwe. 10 Simple Rules for Creating a Global Network in Computational Biology. (2022) 
     

  2. 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)
     

  3. 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)
     

  4. 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.

pubs
experience

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Inaugural 2020 Penn Presidential Ph.D. Fellow

  • Inaugural Janssen Global Scholar of Oncology (funded fellowship)

  • 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention

  • Founder and Director of the Black Women in Computational Biology Network (501c3 pending)

  • Founding Program Co-Director of the fully-funded Penn Summer CompBio Preview

achievements

INTERNATIONAL INVITED TALKS

  • July 2022 
    NIH HuBMAP Summer Internship Panelist
    Pathways to Graduate School
     

  • July 2022
    Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology- Bioinformatics Open Science Conference
    Building and Maintaining Inclusive Open Science Panel

    • Madison, Wisconsin, USA
       

  • April 2021 
    WNYC Science Friday 
    Identity in STEM, in Collaboration with LSAMP

    • Virtually in Oregon, USA

  • March 2021
    Women in Data Science International Conference
    Women in Data Science Africa ​

  • 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​
       

  • 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
     

  • 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

  • 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

invited talks

SKILLS & EXPERTISE

  • Creative Engineering

    • Web Design and Development ​

    • Photography

    • HTML 5/CSS 3 *

    • JavaScript*

    • PHP*

    • MySQL*

  • Programming, Computational Biology & Statistics

    • Biological data science​

    • Translational research 

    • Interdisciplinary teaching and dynamic curriculum development

    • Python

    • R

    • Java

  • Community Architect

    • Public speaking ​

    • Equity-focused community development 

    • Inclusive STEM pedagogy development

* = Beginner

skills
contact

CONTACT

Connect with me or submit a speaking engagement inquiry. 

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