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Graduate Student

Patrick Gainey

Graduate Student

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About Me

I grew up in Santa Barbara, CA, after spending several winters at Williams College I’ve finally adjusted to the New England climate. While at Williams I majored in Biology and Mathematics, with my thesis focusing on trying to induce targeted DNA methylation in zebrafish embryos using a Cas9-DNMT3A fusion protein, a project chosen due to my fascination with the CRISPR-Cas9 system and with Epigenetics. Around the same time, I also had my first contact with the field of Computational Biology, which inspired me to devote a year to taking part in an online post-baccalaureate program in Computer Science that ended only days before I arrived on campus.

Heading into the MCO Program, I plan to continue my investigation into epigenetics and genome regulation with the hope that I may find a project that allows me to incorporate my newer, more computationally oriented interests. That said, I am fascinated by every area of Cellular Biology and look forward to exploring the length and breadth of the research topics that Harvard offers in that field.

Outside of research, I enjoy reading fantasy and sci-fi novels, trying my hand at writing them, playing video game far more than I should, going for runs, and binging Netflix. I am a huge nerd and proud of it, so if you see me around campus, chances are that I’ll be wearing a t-shirt with a superhero logo.