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Katie Pollard and her team develop models that enable them to decode how genomes work, evolve, and break in disease. Their analyses of massive sets of genomic and epigenomic data include investigating human genetic variation, understanding what makes humans unique compared to other species, and characterizing the genomic diversity of the human microbiome, the group of bacteria that populate our digestive system and other body sites. An evolutionary focus, coupled with rigorous statistical methods and bioinformatics tool development, gives the lab a unique perspective on human biology and disease.

About the Speaker

Computational biology, which empowers scientists to draw new insights from massive amounts of data, is Katie Pollard’s métier. She earned her PhD in biostatistics at UC Berkeley, then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Santa Cruz, where she worked with David Haussler, the renowned bioinformatician who led the team that assembled the first human genome sequence. During her fellowship, Pollard discovered rapidly evolving regions in the human genome that may help explain the emergence of brain capabilities unique to humans and may also point to their vulnerability to neurological diseases. After serving as an assistant professor at UC Davis, Pollard joined Gladstone in 2008. She was appointed founding director of the Gladstone Institute of Biotechnology and Data Science in 2018.

In her work, Pollard designs computer programs that can test a million or more hypothetical experiments in a day to predict outcomes. This approach helps identify and prioritize which research avenues performed in a lab are most likely to lead to success, increasing efficiency and speeding discovery.

Her team is recognized for both its rigor to the field of genomics and for its generosity: the open-source software they create is readily shared with scientists around the world. Pollard herself is a dedicated mentor who takes pride in equipping women and other underrepresented groups in science with the skills and training to launch successful careers—and encourages them to extend the practice to the next generation.

Pollard also lends her expertise as an advisor to research programs across the country, including those at the Simons Foundation, The Rockefeller University, and Stanford University, and to biotechnology companies such as Phylagen and Tenaya Therapeutics.