Researcher Spotlight: Karan Uppal

What is your professional background?
I received my BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2007, my MS in Bioinformatics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2009, and my PhD in Bioinformatics (Thesis: Translational bioinformatics for personalized medicine and integrative biology) with a minor in Predictive Analytics, also from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015. I started working at Emory University as an Application Developer/Analyst in 2009. Since then, I have successfully transitioned to an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine.

In what division do you work, and who is your mentor?
I am in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, and Dr. Dean P. Jones is my mentor.

Briefly describe your research. Why is it important?
My research focuses on application and development of bioinformatics and data science techniques for computational metabolomics, integrative omics, biomarker discovery, predictive modeling, and aggregating information from heterogeneous data sources (e.g. omics platforms, imaging, clinical/laboratory, scientific literature). Currently, I am also working on developing text mining methods for summarizing COVID-19 scientific literature and clinical notes. The long-term goal is to collaborate with clinicians and Emory LITS to develop a highly robust and scalable data integration, visualization, and predictive modeling framework that will facilitate precision medicine at Emory.

What do you like most about Emory?
I like the highly collaborative and supportive work environment at Emory.

What is your favorite movie or TV show?
Movie: ‘Goodfellas’; TV show: ‘Seinfeld’

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to travel, spend time with family, take day trips to North Georgia (I wrote a good portion of my PhD thesis at a coffee shop in Helen), and try out new restaurants.

What is a fun fact about you?
I enjoy astrophotography (see photo below), which involves a telescope and an iPhone.