We are pleased to announce the promotion of Bryan Helm to principal statistical genetic analyst, effective November 1. Helm earned a BA cum laude in biology at DePauw University, followed by his MS and PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. He was then a postdoc at North Dakota State University (funded by the USDA and NSF) and Indiana University School of Medicine (supported by a T32 fellowship for work in pediatric clinical and developmental pharmacology).
Transitioning into bioinformatics and joining the Department of Biostatistics in 2021, Helm supports research projects with genomic, transcriptomic, and next-generation sequencing analysis, including single-cell and spatial methods. His bibliography includes first-authored papers in Journal of Experimental Biology, Journal of Insect Physiology, Biology Open, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). His recent work includes identifying functionally distinct thymic DC subsets and elucidating requirements for crosstalk with thymocyte subsets that support their homeostasis and activation, with a preprint posted at bioRxiv; members of that team include biostatistics and bioinformatics professor Qi Liu, Vanderbilt University Medical Center colleagues Cody Heiser and Ken Lau, and investigators at the University of Texas at Austin. Outside of work, his activities include serving as an umpire for the West Nashville Sports League.
