About Frameshift
Genomic data is becoming increasingly important in modern healthcare as well as in biological research. The size and complexity of this data, however, makes it almost impossible for many experts to get the most out of this data.
Frameshift Genomics was founded by Gabor Marth, Chase Miller, and Alistair Ward after working with academic and clinical researchers on large genomic data sets. Building on their experience with bioinformatic tool development, data analysis and visualization, including with the IOBIO project, Frameshift is committed to helping realise the full potential of this data. Our mission is to drive collaborative exploration and analysis of genomic, phenotypic, and other related data in a state-of-the-art, intuitive genomic data visualization platform.
Meet the Team
Alistair Ward
Alistair graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2000 with a Masters in Natural Sciences. After working for the UK government for a few years, Alistair received his PhD in Physics from Boston College. A lifelong interest in genetics spurred a move into bioinformatics, pursuing postdoctoral work in the lab of Professor Gabor Marth, where he worked on large consortium projects including the 1000 Genomes Project. After becoming a research assistant professor, Alistair became a Director of Research and Science at the University of Utah. Alistair is interested in understanding how to extract useful information from complex genomic data, and make it accessible to those without extensive computational experience. In 2015, Alistair co-founded Frameshift with Professor Gabor Marth and Dr. Chase Miller.
Chase Miller
After graduating with a degree in Computer Science, Chase became intrigued by the value and potential of computational tools in the biological sciences. This interest led him to pursue a Biology Ph.D. in the Marth Lab, where he designed, developed, and published some of the first web-based, big-data genomic visualization libraries. One of his most well known projects, IOBIO, has become a popular set of web applications and tools used by thousands of researchers across the globe. In addition to his computational work, Chase frequently attends genomic conferences around the world where he has given numerous talks on the importance of visualization in bioinformatics. His passion for genomics and visualization continues at Frameshift where he is diligently working to develop novel tools that allow for the analysis of complex genomic data in a way that is easier to understand, work with and share with others.
Gabor Marth
Gabor is the head of the Marth Lab at the University of Utah and Co-Director of the Center for Genomic Discovery. Over the past 15 years, Gabor's group has developed software packages for base calling, read mapping, variant discovery, and data visualization in high-throughput, next-generation sequencing data. His research is aimed at developing complete, automated pipelines for sequence processing, variant detection, and variant interpretation; adapt and extend tools for cancer sequence analysis, and at developing informatics technologies to support population, medical, and personal genome sequencing of very large numbers of samples. Gabor is a world renowned expert in the field of genomics and spends his time developing algorithms when he is not writing grants.
Matt Velinder
Matt graduated from Gonzaga University in 2010 with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology. In 2016 he earned his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Utah. After his PhD, Matt joined the lab of Gabor Marth. There he helped lead a team of software developers to implement web browser-based genomic visualization and analysis tools. As a computational geneticist and bioinformatician, Matt has worked closely with physicians and clinical geneticists to help reach genetic diagnoses for patients. He has worked extensively with rare and undiagnosed disease groups and has been instrumental in multiple new gene:disease discoveries. Outside of work, Matt lives full time on his sailboat and sails around the Pacific Northwest. He also enjoys running and cycling very long distances and getting to the top of very tall mountains.
Sam Lichtenberg
Sam graduated from Princeton University in 2015 with a degree in Computer Science. While there, he focused on data-driven fields such as Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and Computational Genomics. He is excited to be a software engineer at Frameshift, where he can continue to build tools and visualizations that empower end-users to make the most of their data. Outside of work, he plays the guitar, writes songs, and loves all things music and literature.
Timothy Craig
Tim graduated from Union College in 2013 with a bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering. Post-college, Tim transitioned into software engineering where he found his true calling. Tim likes to stay up to date with the latest technologies, especially Vue, Node, Typescript, Docker, and all things AWS. Outside of the office, Tim enjoys skiing, playing squash, playing the piano, video games, rock climbing, golf, and ice hockey.
Andrew Grillot
Andrew graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2019 with a bachelor of arts in Computer Science. He has been working as a software engineer ever since. After working from startups up to large companies, Andrew has refined his craft in scaling and maintaining backend systems but enjoys working across the entire technology stack. When he's not writing code, Andrew is traveling, cooking, exercising, and watching sports.