Hi there!

I’m a senior undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, studying Computer Science (with a Focus in AI) and Biochemistry. I’ve taken advanced coursework in structural biology, medical biochemistry, deep learning, computer vision, statistical learning, bioinformatics, and more.

My current research interests are in 3D reconstruction, specifically in the context of the cryo-EM problem. My senior thesis aims to develop methodology to reconstruct membrane proteins embedded in their native lipid bilayer by using prior knowledge about their relative orientation. I’m co-supervised by Dr. John L. Rubinstein at SickKids and Dr. David J. Fleet at Vector Institute. I’m mentored by Shayan Shekarforoush, a PhD student at Vector Institute, and Ryan Karimi, an MD/PhD student at UofT.

I’ve also been trained as a wet-lab scientist, and have experience in confocal fluorescence microscopy, tissue culture, and protein purification, done under the supervision of Dr. Peter K. Kim at SickKids. In Dr. Kim’s lab, I completed a summer research project and my junior thesis, where I looked at looked at translocation patterns of mitochondrial and peroxisomal proteins; and studied the fission machinery of mitochondria.

Figure 1: Reconstruction of (synthetic) V-ATPase found in a synaptic vesicle using the algorithm I'm developing.

Figure 2: HeLa cell stained for Phalloidin (red) and BORG3 (green) imaged using confocal fluorescence microscopy.

I’m more broadly interested in computational imaging, bioinformatics, and computational neuroscience, and will be pursuing post-graduate studies in (more than one?) these fields.

My hobbies include playing basketball, trying coffee shops around Toronto, and playing the official format of the Pokémon videogame, VGC.

Please feel free to contact through any of the channels to the left.

Gerd Bizi