About

CEO, The Bioinformatics CRO

Senior Director of Bioinformatics, bit.bio

Co-founder, clock.bio

Observations over a decade working as a computational biologist in academia and biotech, most of it remotely, convinced me that there was simultaneously a strong demand for quality bioinformatics services and a loss of computational biologists to other industries. Contributors to this leakage of professional talent include a shortage of desirable professional career positions, extreme geographic concentration, and an industry that had not yet widely accepted primarily remote work. Consequently, in 2018, I founded The Bioinformatics CRO as a distributed company to provide quality computational biology services drawing on top talent worldwide. In 2019 I joined bit.bio to help realize the full potential of cell programming and in late 2021 co-founded clock.bio to discover rejuvenation factors.

I'm a computational biologist with experience in the biotech industry. I've worked remotely most of my career. Outside of work I serve as a trustee and treasurer of the LSMSA Foundation.

Education & Training

Research Scientist
University of Oxford
 
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California, Los Angeles
 
Certificate in Regulatory Affairs Essentials
University of California, San Diego Extension
 
Y Combinator Startup School
 
Scholar, National Cohort
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
 
Fellow
On Deck Podcasters, ODP1
Doctor of Philosophy
Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
University of Oxford
jointly with the National Human Genome Research Institute (NIH)
 
Executive Master of Business Administration
Quantic School of Business and Technology

Bachelor of Arts & Bachelor of Science, cum laude
Physics; Chemistry; Chemical Physics; Biochemistry and Cell Biology (quadruple major)
Rice University
 
High School Diploma
Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts

Research Articles

"Transcription factor combinations that define human astrocyte identity encode significant variation of maturity and function" Koby Baranes, Nataly Hastings, Saifur Rahman, Noah Poulin, Joana M. Tavares, Wei-Li Kuan, Najeeb Syed, Meik Kunz, Kevin Blighe, T. Grant Belgard, Mark R. N. Kotter. Glia (2023).

"Broad transcriptomic dysregulation occurs across the cerebral cortex in ASD" Michael J. Gandal, Jillian R. Haney, Brie Wamsley, Chloe X. Yap, Sepideh Parhami, Prashant S. Emani, Nathan Chang, George T. Chen, Gil D. Hoftman, Diego de Alba, Gokul Ramaswami, Christopher L. Hartl, Arjun Bhattacharya, Chongyuan Luo, Ting Jin, Daifeng Wang, Riki Kawaguchi, Diana Quintero, Jing Ou, Ye Emily Wu, Neelroop N. Parikshak, Vivek Swarup, T. Grant Belgard, Mark Gerstein, Bogdan Pasaniuc, Daniel H. Geschwind. Nature (2022).

"Core liver homeostatic co-expression networks are preserved but respond to perturbations in an organism- and disease-specific manner" Saeed Esmaili, Peter Langfelder, T Grant Belgard, Daniele Vitale, Mahmoud Karimi Azardaryany, Ghazal Alipour Talash, Mehdi Ramezani-Moghadam, Vikki Ho, Daniel Dvorkin, Suat Dervish, Brian S. Gloss, Henning Grønbæk, Christopher Liddle, Jacob George. Cell Systems (2021).

"Identification of region-specific astrocyte subtypes at single cell resolution" Mykhailo Batiuk, Araks Martirosyan, Jerome Wahis, Filip de Vin, Catherine Marneffe, Carola Kusserow, Jordan Koeppen, Joao Filipe Vianna, Joao Filipe Oliveira, Thierry Voet, Chris Ponting, T Grant Belgard, Matthew G Holt. Nature Communications (2020).

"A Framework for Integrating Directed and Undirected Annotations to Build Explanatory Models of cis-eQTL Data” David Lamparter, Rajat Bhatnagar, Katja Hebestreit, T Grant Belgard, Alice Zhang, Victor Hanson-Smith. PLOS Computational Biology (2020).

“FUS pathology in ALS is linked to alterations in multiple ALS-associated proteins and rescued by drugs stimulating autophagy” Lara Marrone, Hannes C. A. Drexler, Jie Wang, Priyanka Tripathi, Tania Distler, Patrick Heisterkamp, Eric Nathaniel Anderson, Sukhleen Kour, Anastasia Moraiti, Shovamayee Maharana, Rajat Bhatnagar, T Grant Belgard, Vadreenath Tripathy, Norman Kalmbach, Zohreh Hosseinzadeh, Valeria Crippa, Masin Abo-Rady, Florian Wegner, Angelo Poletti, Dirk Troost, Eleonora Aronica, Volker Busskamp, Joachim Weis, Udai Bhan Pandey, Anthony A. Hyman, Simon Alberti, Anand Goswami, Jared Sterneckert. Acta Neuropathologica (2019).

"Haploinsufficiency leads to neurodegeneration in C9ORF72 ALS/FTD human induced motor neurons” Yingxiao Shi, Shaoyu Lin, Kim A Staats, Yichen Li, Wen-Hsuan Chang, Shu-Ting Hung, Eric Hendricks, Gabriel R Linares, Yaoming Wang, Esther Y Son, Xinmei Wen, Kassandra Kisler, Brent Wilkinson, Louise Menendez, Tohru Sugawara, Phillip Woolwine, Mickey Huang, Michael J Cowan, Brandon Ge, Nicole Koutsodendris, Kaitlin P Sandor, Jacob Komberg, Vamshidhar R Vangoor, Ketharini Senthilkumar, Valerie Hennes, Carina Seah, Amy R Nelson, Tze-Yuan Cheng, Shih-Jong J Lee, Paul R August, Jason A Chen, Nicholas Wisniewski, Victor Hanson-Smith, T Grant Belgard, Alice Zhang, Marcelo Coba, Chris Grunseich, Michael E Ward, Leonard H van den Berg, R Jeroen Pasterkamp, Davide Trotti, Berislav V Zlokovic, Justin K Ichida. Nature Medicine (2018).

"Significant transcriptional changes in 15q duplication but not Angelman syndrome deletion stem cell-derived neurons" Nora Urraca, Kevin Hope, A Kaitlyn Victor, T Grant Belgard, Rawaha Memon, Sarita Goorha, Colleen Valdez, Quynh T Tran, Silvia Sanchez, Juanma Ramirez, Martin Donaldson, Dave Bridges, Lawrence T Reiter. Molecular Autism (2018).

"Endothelium-derived extracellular vesicles promote splenic monocyte mobilisation in myocardial infarction" Naveed Akbar, Janet Digby, Thomas J Cahill, Abhijeet N Tavare, Alastair L Corbin, Sushant Saluja, Sam Dawkins, Laurienne Edgar, Nadiia Rawlings, Klemen Ziberna, Eileen McNeill, Oxford Acute Myocardial Infarction (OxAMI) Study, Errin Johnson, Alaa A Aljabali, Rebecca A Dragovic, Mala Rohling, T Grant Belgard, Irina A Udalova, David R Greaves, Keith M Channon, Paul R Riley, Daniel C Anthony, Robin P Choudhury. JCI Insight (2017).

"An Immunoaffinity-Based Method for Isolating Ultrapure Adult Astrocytes Based on ATP1B2 Targetting by the ACSA-2 Antibody" Mykhailo Y. Batiuk, Filip de Vin, Sandra I. Duqué, Chen Li, Takashi Saito, Takaomi Saido, Mark Fiers, T. Grant Belgard, Matthew G. Holt. The Journal of Biological Chemistry (2017).

"Genome-wide changes in lncRNA, alternative splicing, and regional gene expression patterns in autism" Neelroop N Parikshak*, Vivek Swarup*, T Grant Belgard*, Manuel Irimia, Gokul Ramaswami, Michael J Gandal, Christopher Hartl, Virpi Leppa, Luis de la Torre Ubieta, Jerry Huang, Jennifer K Lowe, Benjamin J Blencowe, Steve Horvath, Daniel H Geschwind. Nature (2016).

*co-first authors

"Histone Acetylome-wide Association Study of Autism Spectrum Disorder" Wenjie Sun, Jeremie Poschmann, Ricardo Cruz-Herrera del Rosario, Neelroop N Parikshak, Hajira Shreen Hajan, Vibhor Kumar, Ramalakshmi Ramaswamy, T Grant Belgard, Bavani Elanggovan, Chloe Chung Yi Wong, Jonathan Mill, Daniel H Geschwind, Shyam Prabhakar. Cell (2016).

"Genome-wide, integrative analysis implicates microRNA dysregulation in autism spectrum disorder" Ye E Wu, Neelroop N Parikshak, T Grant Belgard, Daniel H Geschwind. Nature Neuroscience (2016).

"Elevated gene expression of most microglial markers, and reduced expression of most pyramidal neuron and interneuron markers, in postmortem autism cortex" Rebeca Borges-Monroy, Chris Ponting*, T Grant Belgard*. bioRxiv preprint (2015).

*co-corresponding authors

"Correspondence between resting state activity and brain gene expression" Guang-Zhong Wang*, T Grant Belgard*, Deng Mao, Leslie Chen, Stefano Berto, Todd M Preuss, Hanzhang Lu, Daniel H Geschwind, Genevieve Konopka. Neuron (2015). (PDF)

*co-first authors

"Adult pallium transcriptomes surprise in not reflecting predicted homologies across diverse chicken and mouse pallial sectors" T Grant Belgard*, Juan F Montiel, Wei Zhi Wang, Fernando Garcia-Moreno, Elliott H Margulies, Chris P Ponting*, Zoltán Molnár*. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2013). (free PDF)

*co-corresponding authors

"Population structure confounds autism genetic classifier" T Grant Belgard, Ivana Jankovic, Jennifer K Lowe, Daniel H Geschwind. Molecular Psychiatry (2013).

"Expression profiling of mouse subplate reveals a dynamic gene network and disease association with autism and schizophrenia" Anna Hoerder-Suabedissen, Franziska M Oeschger, Michelle L Krishnan, T Grant Belgard, Wei Zhi Wang, Sheena Lee, Caleb Webber, Enrico Petretto, A David Edwards, Zoltán Molnár. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2013). (free PDF)

"The genomic landscape shaped by selection on transposable elements across 18 mouse strains" Christoffer Nellaker, Thomas M Keane, Binnaz Yalcin, Kim Wong, Avigail Agam, T Grant Belgard, Jonathan Flint, David J Adams, Wayne N Frankel, Chris P Ponting. Genome Biology (2012). (free PDF)

"Water-Phase Synthesis of Cationic Silica/Polyamine Nanoparticles" Quang X Nguyen, T Grant Belgard, John J Taylor, Vinit S Murthy, Naomi J Halas, Michael S Wong. Chemistry of Materials (2012).

"Mouse genomic variation and its effect on phenotypes and gene regulation" Thomas M Keane, Leo Goodstadt, Petr Danecek, Michael A White, Kim Wong, Binnaz Yalcin, Andreas Heger, Avigail Agam, Guy Slater, Martin Goodson, Nicholas A Furlotte, Eleazar Eskin, Christoffer Nellåker, Helen Whitley, James Cleak, Deborah Janowitz, Polinka Hernandez-Pliego, Andrew Edwards, T Grant Belgard, Peter L Oliver, Rebecca E McIntyre, Amarjit Bhomra, Jérôme Nicod, Xiangchao Gan, Wei Yuan, Louise van der Weyden, Charles A Steward, Sendu Bala, Jim Stalker, Richard Mott, Richard Durbin, Ian J Jackson, Anne Czechanski, José Afonso Guerra-Assunção, Leah Rae Donahue, Laura G Reinholdt, Bret A Payseur, Chris P Ponting, Ewan Birney, David J Adams. Nature (2011). (free PDF; cited by)

In the news: TheScientist

"A Transcriptomic Atlas of Mouse Neocortical Layers" T Grant Belgard, Ana C Marques, Peter L Oliver, Hatice Ozel Abaan, Tamara M Sirey, Anna Hoerder-Suabedissen, Fernando Garcia-Moreno, Zoltán Molnár, Elliott H Margulies, Chris P Ponting. Neuron (2011). (free PDF; cited by)

On the cover:

S0896627311X0017X_covhighres.jpeg

Editorial: What's in a Name?

In the news: Medscape, SFARI, GenomeWeb, NIH

#1 most downloaded article in Neuron (Aug 30 - Sept 23, 2011)

Reviews, Commentaries, Workshop Reports

"No Longer Underappreciated: The Emerging Concept of Astrocyte Heterogeneity in Neuroscience" Francisco Pestana, Gabriela Edwards-Faret, T Grant Belgard, Araks Martirosyan, Matthew G Holt. Brain Sciences (2020).

"Transcriptomic Perspectives on Neocortical Structure, Development, Evolution, and Disease" Ed S Lein, T Grant Belgard, Michael Hawrylycz, Zoltan Molnar. Annual Review of Neuroscience (2017).

"The Emerging Picture of Autism Spectrum Disorders: Genetics and Pathology" Jason A Chen, Olga Peñagarikano, T Grant Belgard, Vivek Swarup, Daniel H Geschwind. Annual Review of Pathology (2015).

"NSF Workshop Report: Discovering General Principles of Nervous System Organization by Comparing Brain Maps Across Species" Georg F Striedter, T Grant Belgard, Chun-Chun Chen, Fred P Davis, Barbara L Finlay, Onur Güntürkün, Melina E Hale, Julie A Harris, Erin E Hecht, Patrick R Hof, Hans A Hofmann, Linda Z Holland, Andrew N Iwaniuk, Erich D Jarvis, Harvey J. Karten, Paul S Katz, William B Kristan, Eduardo R Macagno, Partha P Mitra, Leonid L Moroz, Todd M Preuss, Clifton W Ragsdale, Chet C Sherwood, Charles F Stevens, Maik C Stüttgen, Tadaharu Tsumoto, Walter Wilczynski. Brain, Behavior and Evolution and Journal of Comparative Neurology (2014). (free PDF)

"Things Change: How Comparative Transcriptomics Suggest the Pallium Has Evolved at Multiple Levels of Organization" T Grant Belgard* and Juan F Montiel. Brain, Behavior and Evolution (2013). (free PDF)

*corresponding author

"Retooling spare parts: gene duplication and cognition" T Grant Belgard and Daniel H Geschwind. Nature Neuroscience (2012).

"Transcriptional Profiling of Layers of the Primate Cerebral Cortex" Zoltán Molnár* and T Grant Belgard*. Neuron (2012).

*co-corresponding authors

"Transcribed dark matter: meaning or myth?" Chris P Ponting and T Grant Belgard. Human Molecular Genetics (2010). (free PDF; cited by)

Book Chapter

"Chapter 4: Transcriptomics" T Grant Belgard and Daniel H Geschwind, The OMICs: Applications in Neuroscience, Oxford University Press (2014).

Patent Application

"SCALABLE PROCESS FOR SYNTHESIZING UNIFORMLY-SIZED COMPOSITE NANOPARTICLES". Vinit S Murthy, Tildon G Belgard, and Michael S Wong. United States Patent Application 20100222501 (2006).

Software

pysam

Web Interfaces

A Transcriptomic Atlas of Mouse Neocortical Layers

CORTx: A Functional Browser for the Transcriptomes of Neocortical Layers

Mouse-Chicken Transcriptome Comparisons

Platform Talks

Speaker & co-sponsor. Open Precision Medicine 1. The Cloud, 2021.

Invited speaker. The Brain Mosaic: Cellular Heterogeneity in the CNS. Leuven, Belgium, 2016.

Invited speaker. Single Cell Analysis. Leuven, Belgium, 2016.

Speaker. Human Brain Project Summit, Madrid, Spain, 2015.

Invited speaker. VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, Leuven, Belgium, 2015.

Invited speaker. Department of Genetics, Genomics and Informatics, UTHSC, Memphis, TN, 2014.

Invited speaker. Dup15q Alliance - Angelman Syndrome Foundation Joint Scientific Meeting, Boston, MA, 2014.

Invited speaker. Dup15q Alliance Scientific Meeting, Davis, CA, 2013.

Speaker. American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Hollywood, FL, 2012.

Invited speaker. Section on Neuroendocrinology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD, 2011.

Speaker. NIH Solexa (Illumina) User Group, Bethesda, MD, 2011.

Invited speaker. MRC Functional Genomics Unit Retreat, Steventon, UK, 2011.

Invited speaker. Oxford University Cortex Club, Oxford, UK, 2011.

Speaker. NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Colloquium, Cambridge, UK, 2010.

Substitute speaker. Annual Oxford Developmental Biology Symposium, Oxford, UK, 2009.

Speaker. Functional Genomics and Systems Biology Workshop, Wellcome Trust Conference Centre, Hinxton, UK, 2009.

Speaker. Genome Informatics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, NY, 2009.

Invited Reviewer

Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Genetics, Neuron, Molecular Psychiatry, Nature Communications, Trends in Neurosciences, European Journal of Neuroscience, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Biology, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Biological Psychiatry, BMC Biology, BMC Genomics, PLOS ONE, Tumor Biology, Cerebral Cortex, Molecular Brain, Genome Medicine, Molecular Systems Biology, Computers in Biology and Medicine, Rubriq (platform for portable peer review), Research Square (platform for portable peer review)

Selected Awards

Marshall Scholar

NIH-Oxford Scholar

Rice University Outstanding Senior Award

Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts Hall of Fame