Debra S. Goldberg, Ph.D.

 

 

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

§         Computational molecular biology

§         Algorithms for noisy and error-prone data

§         Graph theory

§         Comparative genomics

§         Combinatorics

§         Discrete mathematics

§         Genomic network analysis

 

ACADEMIC DEGREES

Cornell University,        Ithaca, NY
            Ph.D.      Applied Mathematics
                                                                                   2001
            M.S.       Applied Mathematics                                                                                    2000

      Advisors:                  Jon Kleinberg (Computer Science) and
Susan McCouch (Plant Breeding & Genetics)

      Dissertation:             Algorithms for constructing comparative genome maps.

 

University of Denver,     Denver, CO
            M.S.       Computer Science
                                                                                        1988

      Advisor:                    James Hagler (Mathematics and Computer Science)

      Thesis:                      Algorithms and constructions related to combinatorial design of maximal families of k-tuples.

              

Yale University,               New Haven, CT
            B.S.        Biology 
                                                                                                         1984

      Advisor:                    Jeffrey Powell (Biology)

      Senior Project:         A computer simulation of an original mathematical model of nucleic and mitochondrial DNA based on observations of populations of Drosophila.

           

 


RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Harvard Medical School,  Research Fellow                                                                 2001-2005
      Dr. Frederick Roth (advisor), Department of Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology
      Dr. Marc Vidal (co-mentor), Department of Genetics, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Developed graph-theoretic algorithms to enhance understanding of diverse types of large-scale genomic data, such as protein-protein interaction networks.  Integrated protein interaction, gene expression, and gene knockdown phenotype data and exploited the small-world and other topological properties of genomic networks to make interaction and function predictions. 

Cornell University,  Doctoral Research, Center for Applied Mathematics             1996-2001
      Dr. Jon Kleinberg (advisor), Department of Computer Science
      Dr. Susan McCouch (advisor), Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Provided a rigorous mathematical framework for the construction of comparative genome maps with the goal of identifying common ancestral chromosome fragments.  Developed broadly applicable models that balance parsimony and accuracy using dynamic programming techniques.  Applied methods to rice-maize, rice-sorghum, and human-mouse comparisons.

TRW Space & Defense, Aurora, CO,  Senior Member of Technical Staff                1988-1996
Research and development.  Designed, implemented, tested, and maintained signal processing algorithms to gain insights from noisy data.  Responsible to keep system operational 24 hours a day.  Wrote portions of proposals considered critical to company activities.

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,  Research Programmer                            1985-1986
      Dr. Dean Wong (supervisor), Department of Nuclear Medicine
Analyzed data from human Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan studies.  Assisted with the design of theoretical models of brain biochemistry.

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,  Sr. Lab Technician                                   1984-1985
      Dr. Marshall Plaut (supervisor), Department of Clinical Immunology
Studied human macrophages.  Responsible for all phases of the cycle for in-vitro research, including experimental design, specimen collection, cell culture, analysis and reporting of results, and subsequent redesign and refinement of procedures.

Yale University,  Undergraduate Research                                                                           1984
      Dr. Jeffrey Powell, Biology Department
Senior project:  developed an original mathematical model of nucleic and mitochondrial DNA inheritance in Drosophila and wrote a computer simulation.

Yale University, Undergraduate Research                                                                            1983
      Dr. Steven Handel, Biology Department
Independent research project: grew controlled replicate plants in a greenhouse and performed statistical analysis.

Yale School of Medicine, Lab Technician                                                                    1980-1982
Department of Dermatology, part-time. 

Rockefeller University, High School Extern                                                                          1979
Lab Technician: one semester, full-time.  Ran polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis experiments.

 

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Cornell University, Department of Computer Science, Lecturer                                         2000
Data Structures.  Senior-level class.  5 lectures/week.  Managed 2 TAs.                                        
On course evaluations, averaged less than 2.1 for question ”How did the teaching skills of the instructor in this course compare with other instructors?  (1) very favorably (5) very unfavorably”
Some completions to the statement “The aspects of this course I valued most were:”
-  “Teaching was very good, I learned a lot.”
-  “Great instructor and great TAs.  HWs have the right level of difficulty, though it’s a rush in summer.”
-  “Clear presentation of material.”
-  “The obvious engagement of the instructor in the material, the availability of help.”
-  “The homework and quizzes kept me on track and get [sic] a good understanding of the course.”
A complete list of comments and average scores available upon request.

Cornell University, Department of Computer Science, Teaching Assistant
Introduction to Computer Programming (Java)                                                                         1999
Discrete Structures; Introduction to Computer Programming (C++)                               1996-1997

TRW Space & Defense, Aurora, CO, Senior Member of Technical Staff
Organized and taught a class on signal processing algorithms.                                       1995-1996
Led development, teaching of 12-day software maintenance class for customers.        1988-1990

University of Denver, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science,
Teaching Assistant                                                                                                         1987-1988
Taught Core Computer Lab; Taught Calculus III problem sessions.                                                

University of Denver, Computing and Information Resources, User Consultant                 1988
Prepared and taught classes on the use of commonly used software and assisted university computer users.

Sylvan Learning Center, Littleton, CO, Tutor                                                                1986-1988
Basic skills, SAT preparation, enrichment.  Elementary and high school students.                         

Yale University, Department of Computer Science, Tutor                                                     1984
Introduction to Computer Programming (Pascal)                                                                             

 

MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

Harvard Medical School, Research Fellow                                                                  2001-2005
Hired and managed an undergraduate research assistant.

TRW Space & Defense, Aurora, CO,  Senior Member of Technical Staff                 1988-1996
Managed maintenance and upgrade group for software required to operate 24 hours a day. 
Group Lead, design and implementation of new signal processing algorithms. 
Coordinator for a 500-page volume of a proposal for recompetition of company’s major contract.

Factory Direct Sales, Littleton, CO, M.I.S. Manager                                                     1986-1987
Supervised all aspects of data processing department responsible for all programming needs of the company.

 

 

PUBLICATIONS (Peer-Reviewed)

1.      L Zhang, OD King, SL Wong, DS Goldberg, AHY Tong, G Lesage, B Andrews, H Bussey, C Boone, FP Roth.  Motifs, themes and thematic maps of an integrated S. cerevisiae network. (in review)

2.      SL Wong, LV Zhang, AHY Tong, Z Li, DS Goldberg, OD King, G Lesage, M Vidal, B Andrews, H Bussey, C Boone, FP Roth.  Combining biological networks to predict genetic interactions.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101: 15682-15687 (2004).

3.      J-DJ Han, N Bertin, T Hao, DS Goldberg, GF Berriz, LV Zhang, D Dupuy, AJM Walhout, ME Cusick, FP Roth, M Vidal.  Evidence for dynamically organized modularity in the yeast protein-protein interaction network.  Nature 430: 88-93 (2004).

4.      AHY Tong*, G Lesage*, GD Bader, H Ding, H Xu, X Xin, J Young, GF Berriz, RL Brost, M Chang, Y Chen, X Cheng, G Chua, H Friesen, DS Goldberg, J Haynes, C Humphries, G He, S Hussein, L Ke, N Krogan, Z Li, JN Levinson, H Lu, P Ménard, C Munyana, AB Parsons, O Ryan, R Tonikian, T Roberts, A-M Sdicu, J Shapiro, B Sheikh, B Suter, SL Wong, LV Zhang, H Zhu, CG Burd, S Munro, C Sander, J Rine, J Greenblatt, M Peter, A Bretscher, G Bell, FP Roth, GW Brown, B Andrews, H Bussey C Boone.  Global mapping of the yeast genetic interaction network.  Science 303: 808-813 (2004).

5.      S Li*, CM Armstrong*, N Bertin*, H Ge*, S Milstein*, M Boxem*, P-O Vidalain*, J-DJ Han*, A Chesneau*, T Hao, DS Goldberg, N Li, M Martinez, J-F Rual, P Lamesch, L Xu, M Tewari, SL Wong, LV Zhang, GF Berriz, L Jacotot, P Vaglio, J Reboul, T Hirozane-Kishikawa, Q Li, HW Gabel, A Elewa, B Baumgartner, DJ Rose, H Yu, S Bosak, R Sequerra, A Fraser, SE Mango, WM Saxton, S Strome, S van den Heuvel, F Piano, J Vandenhaute, C Sardet, M Gerstein, L Doucette-Stamm, KC Gunsalus, JW Harper, ME Cusick, FP Roth, DE Hill, M Vidal.  A map of the interactome network of the metazoan C. elegans.  Science, 303: 540-543 (2004).

6.      DS Goldberg, FP Roth.  Assessing experimentally derived interactions in a small world.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100:4372-4376 (2003).

7.      D Goldberg, S McCouch, J Kleinberg.  Constructing Comparative Genome Maps with Unresolved Marker Order.  Proceedings of the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) (2002).

8.      D Goldberg.  Algorithms for constructing comparative genome maps.  Ph.D. thesis  (2001).

9.      D Goldberg, S McCouch, J Kleinberg.  Algorithms for Constructing Comparative Maps. in D Sankoff and JH Nadeau, editors, Comparative Genomics: Empirical and Analytical Approaches to Gene Order Dynamics, Map Alignment and the Evolution of Gene Families, Vol. 1 of Series in Computational Biology, Dordrecht, NL.  Kluwer Academic Press  (2000).

10.      DM Post, ME Conners, DS Goldberg.  Prey preference of mobile predators and the stability of partially linked food webs.  Ecology 81:8-14  (2000).

11.  DS Goldberg.  Algorithms and Constructions Related to Combinatorial Design of Maximal Families of k-tuples Master's thesis (1988)

12.  DF Wong, A Gjedde, HN Wagner, Jr., RF Dannals, L Tune, C Tamminga, L O’Tuama, J Williams, DS Goldberg, J Links.  In Vivo Quantification of Absolute D2 Dopamine Receptor Density Using Positron Emission Tomography: Preliminary Human Studies.  [Abstract]  J Nucl Med., 27:954 (1986).

13.  DF Wong, G Wand, H Zacur, DS Goldberg, J Williams, L O’Tuama, E Broussolle, RF Dannals, JM Links, HN Wagner, Jr.  The Effect of the Menstrual Cycle on Dopamine Receptor Binding of c11-3-N-Methylspiperone.  [Abstract]  J Nucl Med., 27:1010 (1986).

 * These authors contributed equally to this work

 

MANUSCRIPTS (submitted)

1.      K Gunsalus*, H Ge*, AJ Schetter*, DS Goldberg*, J-DJ Han, T Hao, N Bertin, N Li, J Huang, L-S Chuang, R Mani, AA Hyman, B Sönnichsen, CJ Echeverri, FP Roth, M Vidal, F Piano.  Predictive models of molecular machines involved in C. elegans early embryogenesis. (in review)

3.      DS Goldberg, G Franklin, FP Roth.  Breaking the power law: improved model selection reveals increased network complexity. (submitted)

 * These authors contributed equally to this work

 

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

National Science Foundation                                                                                         2003-2005
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics
Starter grants for those taking tenure-track positions

Engineering Graduate Research Symposium, Cornell University                                      2001
Oral Presentation Award Winner

Cornell University Department of Computer Science                                                 1999-2000
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

National Science Foundation                                                                                             1998-99
Training Grant DEB-9602229: Evolution from DNA to the Organism: The interface between evolutionary biology and the mathematical sciences.

National Science Foundation                                                                                             1997-98
Training Grant BIR-9113307: Dynamics of heterogeneous ecological and evolutionary systems.

AAUW Educational Foundation                                                                                        1997-98
Research and Projects Career Development Grant

 

 


INVITED PRESENTATIONS

What can we learn from the topology of inaccurate biological networks?
Georgia Institute of Technology, Applied Mathematics Seminar, Atlanta, GA,  March 2005.

Data Assessment and Function Prediction Using Inaccurate Network Data
Rocky Mountain Regional Bioinformatics Conference, Aspen, CO,  December 2004.

A model selection approach to classify the topology of biological networks
BioPathways, Glasgow, UK,  July 2004.

Gaining biological insight from genomic network topology
Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Conference on the Life Sciences, Portland, OR,  July 2004.

Interactome networks
ORFeome Meeting, Boston, MA,  December 2003.

Using small-world network topology to refine experimentally-derived networks
Tufts University, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, Medford, MA,  October 2002.

Constructing Comparative Maps with Unresolved Marker Order
Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, Lihue, HI,  January 2002.

DeCAL: An Open Source System for Constructing Comparative Maps
Bioinformatics Open Source Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark,  July 2001.

Automated Construction of Genomic Comparative Maps
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, OH,  July 2001.
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA,  June 2001.
Engineering Graduate Research Symposium,
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY,  March 2001.
DIMACS Workshop on Whole Genome Comparison, Piscataway, NJ,  March 2001.
Plant and Animal Genome IX Conference, San Diego, CA,  January 2001.

Algorithms for Constructing Comparative Maps
Cornell University, Mathematical Sciences Seminar, Ithaca, NY,  October 2000.
Tel Aviv University, School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv, Israel,  October 2000.
Conference on Gene Order Dynamics, Comparative Maps and Multigene Families,
      Sainte-Adèle, Canada,  September 2000.

Prey preference by mobile predators and the stability of partially linked food webs.
Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM,  August 1997.

 

 

PRESS COVERAGE

Comparative genome map algorithms were featured in:
Cornell Chronicle, January 18, 2001.
Cornell press release, December 21, 2000.
EurekAlert, December 21, 2000.
GenomeWeb, December 26, 2000.
bioresearch online, December 27, 2000.
ScienceDaily, January 1, 2001.
Bioinform, January 2001.
Technology Research News, February 14, 2001.
Genome Technology, March 2001.

 

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

International Society for Computational Biology                                                           2004-current
 Vice-Chair, inaugural Student Council

Reviewer
Nucleic Acid Research                                                                                                2003-2004
Bioinformatics                                                                                                                       2003

Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (ACSW); Cornell University                  2000-2001
Elected to represent graduate students on this committee comprised primarily of
Cornell faculty and staff.  The mission of ACSW is to advise Cornell Administration and educate the University community on women’s issues, and to advocate for equality for women.

Engineering Graduate Student Association (EGSA); Cornell University                        1999-2001
Organized professional seminars and social activities.

 

 

OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

Williams Elementary School                                                                                          2002-current
Regularly posted mathematical puzzles at “Dr. Deb’s Puzzle Corner”
Led activities for Mathematics Awareness Month

Expanding Your Horizons in Math, Science, and Engineering; Cornell University         1999-2001
Chairman, Science Resources and Books Committee                                                       1999
Chairman, Evaluations Committee                                                                                      2000
Workshop co-leader: Computational Genomics                                                        2000, 2001
Workshop co-leader: Mathematics                                                                                      2001

Kids on Campus; Cornell University                                                                                         1997
Organized mathematical activities at the Center for Applied Mathematics.

Girls, Inc., Science, Math, And Relevant Technology (SMART) program                     1993-1994.
Volunteer, leading weekly science and math activities for girls in grades 1-8.

 

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)

American Mathematical Society (AMS)

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

 

 


REFERENCES

Frederick Roth, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Advisor)      (617) 432-3551     fritz_roth@hms.harvard.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Harvard Medical School, 250 Longwood Ave., SGM-322, Boston, MA  02115

Marc Vidal, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Co-Mentor)       (617) 632-5180  Marc_Vidal@dfci.harvard.edu
Associate Professor, Department of Genetics
Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Smith 858, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA  02115

Jon Kleinberg, Ph.D. (Doctoral Advisor)              (607) 255-3600           kleinber@cs.cornell.edu
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
Cornell University, 5134 Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853

Susan McCouch, Ph.D. (Doctoral Advisor)         (607) 255-0420                     srm4@cornell.edu
Professor, Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell University, 162 Emerson Hall, Ithaca, NY  14853

David Schwartz, Ph.D. (Teaching Advisor)         (607) 255-5395                    dis@cs.cornell.edu
Lecturer, Department of Computer Science
Cornell University, 5137 Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853