McNair Scholar 2024 - Trevor L. Marquez
Trevor L. Marquez is a senior at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, majoring in Genetics, Cell Biology and development. His research focuses on using machine learning to predict drug properties. Mr. Marquez plans on getting his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics.
Quote from Trevor Marquez
My dream is to work in bioinformatics research and get my Ph.D. in bioinformatics or genomics. I want to be involved in the most cutting-edge research in my field and find new ways to solve medical problems.
Research project
Predicting drugs that extend lifespan in C. elegans using machine learning models
Abstract
The process of aging has long been an active topic of research; however, methods of studying the aging process have not yielded conclusive results. In our work, we plan to utilize drugs and their effects on C. elegans to study the aging process. Nematode life extending compounds (NLEs) are of particular interest, but many of them are likely undiscovered. Due to the wide scope of compounds that exist, it would be inefficient and prohibitively expensive to screen all compounds in vivo. Machine learning models are a useful way to help narrow down the chemical search space. A variety of machine learning models were evaluated to investigate the efficacy of using machine learning to predict compounds that extend C. elegans lifespan.
Faculty mentor
Dr. Chad L. Myers is currently a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Dr. Myers obtained his Ph.D. in computer science at Princeton University in 2007. His research focuses on using machine learning data to study biological networks and the interactions of genes and proteins to carry out cellular processes.