Meet Mahlon Collins of the University of Minnesota. Mahlon is a member of Dr. Frank Albert’s laboratory in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development. In 2018, Mahlon made his maiden voyage to CSHL to present a poster during The Biology of Genomes meeting. He returned this spring for the Ubiquitins, Autophagy, & Disease meeting, and again this month for the Computational Genomics course. This is his first course at CSHL and he wishes he “had taken one sooner!” However, we have a feeling we’ll once again be welcoming Mahlon at one of our future Biology of Genomes or Ubiquitins, Autophagy & Disease meetings!

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I study how genetic variation affects cellular physiology. My current work focuses on how individual genetic differences influence protein degradation, an essential biological process implicated in a variety of diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, cancers, and immune disorders.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research?
I enrolled in the neuroscience program at the University of Pittsburgh for my graduate training. My thesis focused on molecular mechanisms of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). While completing my PhD, I was surprised to learn how little we know about the genetic basis of this and related diseases. Near the end of my PhD, a series of papers were published that creatively used the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to provide new insights into the genetics of ALS. I read more papers about the power of yeast genetics and decided to become a yeast geneticist myself for my postdoctoral training. I joined the Frank Albert laboratory in late 2016 and have been busy since that time developing new tools and methods to map genetic influences on protein degradation.

How did your scientific journey begin?
Like many scientists, as a child, I enjoyed figuring out how things work by taking them apart and putting them back together. Unlike many scientists, however, I grew up in a town of less than 500 people in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Coming from a small town, I was unsure of what career paths were available or of interest to me as a freshman undergraduate student. Fortunately for me, a faculty member, Dr. Deb Poole, saw my natural curiosity and encouraged me to try scientific research. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of research and enrolled in graduate school after completing my bachelor's degree. Since then, I've become interested in genomic and proteomic technologies and have worked with these in both my graduate and postdoctoral research.

Was there something specific about the Computational Genomics course that drew you to apply?
My research identifies regions of the genome that influence protein degradation. These regions are often large and contain many genes. A major challenge is predicting and identifying which genes in these regions are truly influencing a phenotype of interest. I wanted to develop a computational approach to predict candidate causal genes in these regions. To do so, I used methods we learned in the course for variant detection, annotation, and functional interpretation.

What and/or how will you apply what you’ve learned from the course to your work?
I developed several approaches for identifying, annotating, and analyzing genetic sequence variant data while at CSHL. One of the best aspects of the course is that these workflows are saved and I can access them when I return to my home institution. Because many of my labmates perform similar experiments, I'm looking forward to sharing my methods and results with them and working together to make them even better. The course also gave us access to great resources for further training in computational genomics methods and I'm looking forward to building on what I've already learned in the future.

What is your key takeaway from the Course?
They weren't kidding when they said 12-15 hour days!

More seriously, a key concept from the course is the central role of probability distributions in making statistical inferences in genomics. It's neat to see how the same mathematical frameworks can be used to solve problems across multiple domains of genomics, from detecting sequence homology to identifying differentially expressed genes.

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
First, if you're thinking about taking the course, do it. It's both excellent training in the foundations of computational methods used in genomics and a survey of the latest developments in the field. The faculty are incredibly generous with their time and expertise and you can even bring and analyze your own data.

Second, "Computational Genomics", is more than a course, it's an experience. Beyond the lectures and laboratory exercises, you'll spend a week with a group of talented graduate students and postdocs learning, working together, and getting to know each other. On top of that, you'll get to do so in a beautiful place filled with history. It's a completely unique, incredibly memorable experience and I can't speak highly enough of it.

Lastly, one pro tip: You'll be sitting a lot, so take time to exercise in the morning. There are lots of great places to run in the area and the gym in Dolan Hall is nicely equipped and not crowded if you can make it there before 7:30 a.m.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
Life at CSHL is like attending summer camp and my favorite aspect is the sense of community and camaraderie. This starts with living together in cabins and builds through the unique experiences you have while at CSHL. I have fond memories of long, early-morning runs led by Randy Hampton at the Ubiquitins, Autophagy, and Disease meeting from earlier this year and, now, of James Taylor introducing our group to Little Vincent's 'Long Island cold cheese pizza' while we worked late into the night on our course projects. That you can have these experiences while interacting with leaders in your field and hearing about great science is truly remarkable and unlike any other meeting or course I've attended.

Thank you to Mahlon for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.