RSG SEUSA

Leon Hardy

Dr. Hardy holds a Ph. D. in mathematics from the University of New England in Armidale, Australia and a Masters in physics from the University of Central Florida. Currently, he is a lecturer in physics at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. His research interest are in highly interdisciplinary approaches to solving problems ranging from cognitive science to computational biology. He is especially interested in the protein folding problem.

​Geetha Saarunya

Geetha Saarunya is a doctoral student in the Integrative Biology program at University of South Carolina. Her research focus is on identification of unique microbial genomic signatures and examining the effect of external perturbations in microbial community structure. Her love and passion for teaching and research in Biological data analyses lead her to co-design a problem and project based bioinformatics course with her advisor at U of SC. She is also the Stanford University’s Woman in Data Science (WiDS) ambassador for the state of South Carolina.

Her introduction to the field of Computational biology was marked by encouraging and motivating mentors . Similarily, she hopes to inspire and mentor her fellow female students as a WiDS ambassdor.

Geetha has an undergraduate engineering degree in Biotechnology from SRM University in India and a Masters in Biological Sciences from University of South Carolina.

Miles McCabe

Miles McCabe is a graduate student who works with Dr. Leon Hardy and USF St. Petersburg to promote the presence of computational biology and student research opportunities.

Miles believes that the emerging field of computational biology can contribute to developing a deeper understanding of biomolecular interactions for the advancement of human medicine. Miles holds a special interest in studying the process of protein folding and binding. His research concerns the PTEN tumor suppressor protein and binding interactions with other proteins to inhibit tumor angiogenisis.

Miles serves as Vice President for the USF St. Petersburg student Computational Biology Club and is also Vice President for the International Society for Computational Biology – Regional Student Group – Southeastern USA (ISCB-RSG-SEUSA).

Miles holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from USF St. Petersburg and is currently enrolled as a student of the Master of Science in Medical Sciences program at USF Health campus in Tampa, Florida.