Profile – Jonathan Hoover, Prima Mente

Jonathan Hoover

Name:

Jonathan Hoover

Job title:

Bioinformatics Research Scientist

Place of work / study:

Prima Mente

Area of Research:

Building AI models for cellular biology, to help determine how disease emerges and progresses in cells of the brain

How is your work funded:

Venture capital

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’m a bioinformatics researcher at Prima Mente, where I work on our virtual cell and perturbation modeling efforts. My role is to help define the biological questions we want to ask, and to curate the datasets and pipelines that enable our modeling team to answer them. Previously, I was at Genentech evaluating single-cell RNA sequencing technologies. I hold a master’s in Statistics, and before that spent several years doing experimental work in immunology labs. This mix of backgrounds has been useful for bridging biology and ML teams.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself:

I am a big fan of the outdoors! Most of my free time is spent climbing, cycling, hiking, or really anything that gets me outside. When i’m too tired for this, I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction

Why did you choose to work in dementia?

I did my undergrad in neuroscience because my family has a history of AD, so I was curious about the science behind what was happening. I moved out of the field for a while, but I came back because the progress in AD has been relatively slow compared to other fields like cancer, and I want to contribute to how the field moves forward

What single piece of advise would you give to an early career researcher?

Explore. There are so many fields and domains and tools out there that are not immediately obvious until you dig around more. Your interests early in your career will likely change dramatically and the more you explore, the better off you’ll be as you move forward. Also don’t be afraid of failure. It sucks, but it’s also when you tend to learn the most

What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?

I’m reading a book called dungeon crawler carl. It’s a progression fantasy book that is fairly witty. I’d recommend if you don’t mind a bit of gratuitous violence, but it’s not for everyone

Favourite film of all time?

I actually don’t have a favorite film. I don’t watch a ton of movies, but my favorite book is Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Favourite ways to unplug and unwind?

Big fan of getting outside and moving! Ideal day is a few hours in the sun climbing with my friends

What’s the best decision you ever made?

Not sure

What’s your favourite vacation spot?

Still searching

Do you collect anything?

No

Can we find you on social media?

Find Jonathan on LinkedIn