Erik Corona
Current Position
- Director of Data Science Resarch for a startup focused on facilitating the analysis of "Big Data".
- Furthering the research that I began at Stanford University in the Butte Lab.
Education
- Ph.D., Biomedical Informatics, Stanford University, 2012
- B.S., Computer Science with a Specialization in Bioinformatics, University of California San Diego, 2007
Technical Skills
- Programming Experience: statistical computing, client/server database, web programming
- Languages: R, Java, C/C++, SQL, Javascript, Perl, PHP, MATLAB
- Operating Systems: Linux, Windows, Mac OS
- Additional Experience: HBase, Java Swing, OOD, design patterns. Analyzing large publicly available data sets.
Research Interests
- Machine learning, evolution, disease, personalized medicine, creative visualizations of complex data, pharmacogenetics, population genetics, disease etiology.
Honors and Awards
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, 2009.
- National Library of Medicine Training Grant, 2008.
- California Alliance for Minority Participation Summer Research Award, 2007.
- CALIT^2 Summer Research Scholar, 2006.
Education and Projects
2012 Director of Data Science Research at Global Computer Enterprises
- Designed a system to automate the analysis of large amounts of data. The design includes robust statistical and machine learning based approaches, as well as modifications to existing methods to emphasize real-time performance.
- Incorporated novel and existing methodology into the company's pipeline to expand the scope of data analysis.
2012 Stanford Unviersity School of Medicine
- Identified a novel mutation causing Charcot-Marie-Tooth in a loved one and created a blog to document the process.
- Completing a project to systematically search for signs of selection within various pathogens.
- Completed my thesis and received my Ph.D. from Stanford University.
2011 Stanford University School of Medicine
- Created multiple visualizations of complex genetic data and how it relates to disease susceptibility.
- Designed and implemented a method designed to detect genetic risk deviations in populations exceeding what is expected under genetic drift.
- Advanced to PhD candidacy.
2009 - 2010 Stanford University School of Medicine
- Created a new approach to find signals of positive selection within GWAS data. Successfully found positive selection in Type 1 Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Crohn's Disease.
- Consulted and independently implemented internal software solutions for Insight Education. Responsibilities included designing, implementing, and testing internal software solutions.
2007 - 2008 University of California, San Diego
- Helped design and independently implemented a method designed to look for deletion polymorphisms using haplotypes. Several new common deletion polymorphisms were identified.
- Graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science with a Specialization in Bioinformatics.
Teaching
- TA for Dr. Atul J. Butte's Course: BMI 217 - Translational Bioinformatics 2008.
- TA for Dr. Russ B. Altman's Course: BMI 214 - Representations and Algorithms for Computational Molecular Biology 2009.
- Presented a lecture: Detecting Positive Selection from Haplotypes.
- TA for Atul J. Butte's Course: BMI 217 - Translational Bioinformatics 2010.
- Created a problem set that involved accurately identifying an individual's ethnicity based on PCA analysis of genetic data. Utilized R and MySQL.
- Guest Lecture in Dr. Serafim Batzoglou's CS374 "Algorithms in Biology" course
- Presented a lecture: Methods for Detecting Recent Positive Selection: Applications in Complex Disease. 2011
Publications
- Corona E. , Raphael, B., Eskin, E. Identification of Deletion Polymorphisms from Haplotypes. Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Conference on Research in Computational Biology (RECOMB-2007).
- Corona E., Dudley, J. T. Butte, A. J. Extreme evolutionary disparities seen in positive selection across seven complex diseases. PLoS One 5, e12236, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012236
- Corona E., Chen R, Sikora M, Moran A, Patel C, Bustamante C.D., Butte A.J. Analysis of the genetic-basis of disease in the context of worldwide human relationships and migration (PLoS Genetics 2013)
- Chen R, Corona E.,Sikora M, Dudley J.T., Moreno-Estrada A., Moran A, Nilsen G.B., Lincoln S.E., Bustamante C.D., Butte A.J. Type 2 Diabetes risk alleles demonstrate extreme directional differentiation among human populations, compared to other diseases (PLoS Genetics 2012)
- Kang P., Rong C., Corona E. , Yang X, Schadt E.E., Butte A.J. Integration of disease-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms, expression quantitative trait loci and coexpression networks reveal novel candidate genes for type 2 diabetes. (Diabetologia 2012)
- Laura R. Botigué, Brenna M. Henn, Simon Gravel, Brian K. Maples, Christopher R. Gignoux, Corona E., Gil Atzmon, Edward Burns, Harry Ostrer, Carlos Flores, Jaume Bertranpetit, David Comas, Carlos D. Bustamante. Gene flow from North Africa contributes to differential human diversity in Southern Europe (accepted for publication)
- Corona E., Chen R, Suthram S., Bustamante C.D., Butte A.J. Long-term effects of Pathogens on the Human Genome (submitting for review)
Media
Volunteer
- Mentor high school and community college students underrepresented in science independently and as part of the MVLA scholars program.
- Volunteer my expertise in California Department of Rehabilitation policy to numerous people seeking to install adaptive driving equipment.
Conferences
- Paper reviewer for AMIA Summit on Translational Bioinformatics, 2012.
- Poster Presentation: Extreme evolutionary disparities seen in positive selection across seven complex diseases ASHG 2009.
- Poster Presentation: Analysis of the genetic-basis of disease in the context of worldwide human relationships and migration ASHG 2011.
- Oral Presentation: Identification of Deletion Polymorphisms from Haplotypes. RECOMB 2007
- Poster Presentation: Identification of Deletion Polymorphisms from Haplotypes. SACNAS 2007.
Languages
Can write and speak Spanish fluently.