Who am I?

I am currently a fourth year computational biology PhD student at Universität Bielefeld working at the intersection of deep learning and genomics. I was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship as part of the ALPACA project. I am advised by Prof. Dr. Alexander Schönhuth in the Genome Data Science Group. I have a background in electrical engineering, obtained from VTU, Karnataka, India and a masters degree in biomedical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. I subsequently worked in the data science/ML industry for four years on a bunch of stuff, prior to starting my PhD. I also had short stints as a volunteer grade school maths teacher and as a science writer. I also ran DataKind Bengaluru, the Bengaluru chapter of DataKind for a couple of years in a volunteer capacity. I am originally from the city of Bengaluru, located in the south of India.

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in the intersection of AI and ML with biology. My current interests are:

• Generative modeling for genomics
  
• Computationally deciphering antibiotic resistance
  
• Interpretability and privacy in genomics
  
• I also try to keep up with the literature in single cell and spatial genomics, but I fear it’s a lost cause

Miscellaneous

Outside of research, I like to read, go on long runs, hike, and indulge in the occassional bird-watching. I’m a big fan of classical Indian music - used to play the mridangam, ghatam and the sitar. Unfortunately not anymore. Until a couple of years back, I was an active trivia/pub quizzer.

I am not a medical doctor! D R are my initials. My name in the Kannada script is ರಘುರಾಮ್ ದಂಡಿನಶಿವರ.

Find me on

• email raghuram(at)CeBiTec(dot)Uni(hyphen)Bielefeld(dot)DE
• X, formerly known as Twitter pseudodoctor