From the encoding of heritable information in DNA to empowering precision biomedicine to enabling cutting-edge discoveries in the marine sciences, the students and faculty of the BiRG lab use the tools of machine learning and biologically-inspired algorithms to explore a broad range of scientific questions. We specialize in solving data intensive problems in the life sciences. Ongoing projects span the broad areas of projects bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, data science, computational biology, marine biology, organismal biology, and molecular evolution.

Our Philosophy

As we grow as a group, we believe it becomes more and more important to reflect on our vision, mission, and philosophy. 


“We know that what matters most in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters is helping others win as well. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and again.” - Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers)


Our mission and vision is to cultivate a group of scientists to tackle some of the most challenging problems in biology while always remembering that what is essential is invisible to the eye. 

Sample Projects and Classes

Cal Poly Bioinformatics.pptx

Bioinformatics @ Cal Poly

DATA441/442 Capstone in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics Captone

Machine Learning in Cancer Subtyping

SRI Overview

Strategic Initiative in Data Science

PUMP: Predicting Underspecification Monitoring Pipeline

448_441:Introduction

BIO441/CSC448

 Are you interested in data-driven next-generation genomics, bioinformatics, or data science? Are you a biologist, computer scientist, mathematician, bioinformatician, data scientist, or biochemist interested in the discovery only possible through interdisciplinary collaboration? Are you interested in joining and leading interdisciplinary teams as we work together to study genome biology, molecular evolution, and the computational approaches and algorithms necessary for big data genomic analysis. 

Get in touch with us at jdavid06@calpoly.edu and pander14@calpoly.edu