Steve Ryan, Ph.D.
Computational Biology ⋅ Data Science ⋅ Drug Discovery ⋅ Neuroscience ⋅ Biomedical Engineering ⋅ Computer Science ⋅ Electrophysiology ⋅ Research Software Engineering ⋅ Machine Learning ⋅ Project Management ⋅ Leadership
I specialize in building and using data systems to generate insights from biomedical data. I have the skills and experience to understand a problem, link it to scientific and business objectives, then lead a team to build a solution.
Professional Experience
Q-State Biosciences
Interim Director, Head of Analytics 2022 – Present
Lead Data Scientist 2021 – 2022
Senior Computational Neuroscientist2019 – 2021
Data Scientist 2017 – 2019
As director, I oversee the activities of our analytics and data engineering teams. I’m responsible for cross-functional interactions with other departments, hiring, budgets, and long-term planning for new technology and platform development.
As a data scientist I maintain and deploy code in a repository comprising ~220k lines of Matlab and Python code. I deploy production-quality analysis pipelines and user-facing software products for movie segmentation, feature extraction, statistical testing, data visualization, high-throughput screening analysis, ETL, and high content imaging analysis workflows. I also collaborate with scientific team leads to translate scientific questions into analytical questions through experimental design, exploratory data analysis, statistical models, and machine learning models.
Emory University
Post-doctoral Research Fellow2014-2017
My primary focus in this position was studying models of psychiatric disease in juvenile and adolescent animals to better understand how these conditions develop as a result of alteration to the developmental program in young animals and, ultimately, how they can be detected and treated early.
Education
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
Master of Science, Computer Science, AI & Machine Learning Antic. Spring 2024
Emory University Atlanta, GA
Doctor of Philosophy, Neuroscience November, 2014
Developmental Regulation of Membrane Potential Oscillations in the Basolateral Amygdala: Modulation by β-Adrenergic Receptor Activation
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
Bachelor of Science, Biomedical Engineering May 2007
Publications & Patents
Three manuscripts are in preparation or under review and not listed here
Ryan SJ, Delaney-Busch N, Dempsey GT. (2022). Cell Activity Machine Learning (US 17/735799). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2022/0358646.html
Williams LA, Gerber DJ, Elder A, Tseng WC, Baru V, Delaney-Busch N, Ambrosi C, Mahimkar G, Joshi V, Shah H, Harikrishnan K, Upadhyay H, Rajendran SH, Dhandapani A, Meier J, Ryan SJ, Lewarch C, Black L, Douville J, Cinquino S, Legakis H, Nalbach K, Behrends C, Sato A, Galluzzi L, Yu TW, Brown D, Agrawal S, Margulies D, Kopin A, Dempsey GT (2022), Developing antisense oligonucleotides for a TECPR2 mutation-induced, ultra-rare neurological disorder using patient-derived cellular models, Molecular Therapy-Nucleic Acids 29, 189-203.
PubMed | PDF
Simkin D, Papakis V, Bustos BI, Ambrosi CM, Ryan SJ, Baru V, Williams LA, Dempsey GT, McManus OB, Landers JE, Lubbe SJ, George AL, Kiskinis E (2022), Homozygous might be hemizygous: CRISPR/Cas9 editing in iPSCs results in detrimental on-target defects that escape standard quality controls, Stem Cell Reports
PubMed | PDF
Daniel SE, Menigoz A, Guo J, Ryan SJ, Seth S, Rainnie DG (2019), Chronic Stress induces cell type-selective transcriptomic and electrophysiological changes in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, Neuropharmacology 150, 80-90
PubMed | PDF
Ryan SJ, Li C, Menigoz A, Hazra R, Dabrowska J, Ehrlich DE, Gordon K, Rainnie DG. (2018). Repeated shock stress facilitates basolateral amygdala synaptic plasticity through decreased cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase type IV (PDE4) expression, Brain Struct Funct, May;223(4):1731-1745.
PubMed | PDF
Amadei EA*, Johnson ZV*, Kwon Y-J, Shpiner AC, Saravanan V, Mays WD, Ryan SJ, Walum H, Rainnie DG, Young LJ and Liu RC (2017), Dynamic corticostriatal activity biases social bond formation in monogamous prairie voles, Nature, Jun 8;546(7567):297-301
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Rainnie DG, Daniel S, Menigoz A, Guo JD, Ryan S, Seth S (2017), BNST cell type-selective changes in gene expression in response to chronic stress, Biological Psychiatry 81 (10), S45
Ryan SJ*, Ehrlich DE*, Rainnie DG. (2016). Morphology and dendritic maturation of developing principal neurons in the rat basolateral amygdala. Brain Struct Funct, Mar;221(2):839-54.
PubMed | PDF
Ehrlich DE, Neigh GN, Bourke CH, Nemeth CL, Hazra R, Ryan SJ, Rowson S, Jairam N, Sholar C, Rainnie DG, Stowe ZN, Owens MJ. (2015). Prenatal stress, regardless of concurrent escitalopram treatment, alters behavior and amygdala gene expression of adolescent female rats. Neuropharmacology, October; 97:251-8.
PubMed | PDF
Ehrlich DE, Ryan SJ, Hazra R, Guo JD, Rainnie DG. (2013). Postnatal maturation of GABAergic transmission in the rat basolateral amygdala. J Neurophysiol, August; 110(4):926-41.
PubMed | PDF
Ehrlich DE*, Ryan SJ*, Rainnie DG. (2012). Postnatal development of electrophysiological properties of principal neurons in the rat basolateral amygdala. J Physiol, October 1, 2012; 590(19):4819-4838.
PubMed | PDF
Ryan SJ*, Ehrlich DE*, Jasnow AM*, Daftary S, Madsen TE, Rainnie DG. (2012). Spike-timing precision and neuronal synchrony are enhanced by an interaction between synaptic inhibition and membrane oscillations in the amygdala. PLoS One 7, e35320.
PubMed | PDF
Hazra R, Guo JD, Ryan SJ, Jasnow AM, Dabrowska J, Rainnie DG (2011). A transcriptomic analysis of type I-III neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Molecular and Cellular Neurosciences 46(4):699:709.
PubMed | PDF
(* indicates collaborative first authorship)