Sameed Siddiqui is a PhD Candidate in the Computational and Systems Biology program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the Sabeti Lab, Sameed’s work has spanned the computational and molecular domains, from developing computer vision tools to interpret lateral flow strips, to developing new reporter systems for CRISPR-based viral diagnostics. Co-advised by the Alter Lab, Sameed has explored novel designs for a peptide-based malaria vaccine and has played a leading role in studies to understand the immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 in different human cohorts.
Sameed is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where he majored in Electrical Engineering with the Biomedical Option, including a Technical Breadth in Computer Science. In his time at UCLA, he worked in the Di Carlo Lab on a microfluidics-based digital enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), in the Jalali Lab on a multichannel radio frequency analog signal demodulator, and in the Suthana Lab on using machine learning to predict patient movement based on theta oscillations in the human medial temporal lobe. After his time at UCLA, Sameed worked as a Bioinformatics Software Engineer at Dovetail Genomics, where he helped develop and deploy algorithms for genome assembly and genome structural variation analysis. Finally, before coming to MIT, Sameed worked at Google as a Software Engineer, developing backend functionality for Google Assistant in Java.
Outside of the lab, Sameed enjoys repeatedly moving pieces of iron up and then back down at the gym, playing basketball, and salsa dancing. You’ll also often see Sameed attempting to make puns with a variable success rate (sometimes, sadly, even his own puns don’t make him laugh), and day-dreaming of hiking amongst the redwoods or of reading a book by the ocean on a warm sunny day.