2025 – 2026
M.S. in Statistics
Rice University, Houston, TX
Brayan Gutierrez
Graduate Research Assistant in computational cancer bioinformatics, working on transcriptomic deconvolution and multi-omic methods. MSTAT candidate at Rice University, with research spanning gene co-expression networks, 3D morphometrics, and Bayesian statistics.
Wang Lab, MD Anderson Cancer Center · Rice University, Department of Statistics · Houston, TX
Education
2021 – 2024
B.S. in Mathematics — Data Science Option
University of Houston · Magna Cum Laude, GPA 3.77
2019 – 2021
Honors Associate of Science
Lone Star College–CyFair · Magna Cum Laude, GPA 3.80
Research Experience
Fall 2026 – Present
Transcriptomic Deconvolution & Multi-Omic Method Development in Cancer Genomics
Graduate Research Assistant, Wang Lab — MD Anderson Cancer Center (with Dr. Wenyi Wang)
Developing and benchmarking cell-type deconvolution methods for bulk RNA-seq in cancer genomics, and contributing to a multi-institution cancer genomics compendium project (data coordination with DFCI, NCI, and MIT).
Fall 2026 – Present
3D Point Cloud Deep Learning for Fossil Teeth & Skeletal Classification
Rice University Collaborative Research (with Manuel and Dr. Judy Wang)
Applying point-cloud deep learning architectures (PointMLP, PointNeXt, Point Transformer) to classify fossil teeth and skeletal scans, benchmarked against PointNet++ and DGCNN.
Summer 2026 – Present
EV-OMICS: Multi-Omics Profiling of Extracellular Vesicles
Rice University / MD Anderson Collaborative Research
Contributing to multi-omic profiling of extracellular vesicles for early-stage predictive diagnostic biomarkers; supervising a research assistant on experimental and analytical workflows.
Summer – Fall 2026
Genetic & Developmental Mechanisms of Skeletal Heterochrony in Cypriniform Fishes
University of Houston Volunteer Research (with Sara Loetzerich & Dr. Jake Daane)
Investigating the genetic basis of skeletal heterochrony across Cypriniform fishes using Danio rerio and Danionella cerebrum, combining comparative genomics with in situ hybridization and PCR-based genotyping.
Fall 2025 – Fall 2026
Robust Clustering Analysis of Genes Related to Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Rice University Graduate Research
Optimized the MEGENA (Multiscale Embedded Gene Co-expression Network Analysis) pipeline for GPU/CPU architectures to identify novel AMD biomarkers and genetic regulators from RNA-seq gene co-expression modules.
→ RNAseq-AMD repositorySpring 2024 – Fall 2025
Parallel Reduction in Skeletal Density in Baikal Sculpins
University of Houston Baccalaureate & Post-Baccalaureate Research (with Dr. Jake Daane)
Characterized skeletal density variation across the phylogeny of Baikal sculpins using µCT scans processed in Thermo Fisher's Amira software. Published in Integrative Organismal Biology.
→ Project repositorySummer 2023
Stochastic Newton-MCMC for Bayesian Inference
University of Houston Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (with Dr. Andrea Mang)
Implemented and compared MCMC algorithms (Metropolis-Hastings, Hamiltonian, Stochastic-Newton) in Python on Bayesian inference problems.
Projects & Repositories
Selected code repositories. See github.com/Brayan695 for the full list.
RNAseq-AMD
Gene co-expression network analysis pipeline (MEGENA) for identifying biomarkers of age-related macular degeneration from bulk RNA-seq data.
View repository →Parallel Reduction in Skeletal Density — Baikal Sculpins
µCT-based morphometric analysis of skeletal density across benthic-to-pelagic transitions in Baikal sculpins. Companion code for the published Integrative Organismal Biology paper.
View repository →WaterSafetyClassification
Machine learning classification of water safety/potability from water-quality measurements.
View repository →WaterSafetyClassification.R
R implementation of the water safety classification project.
View repository →Publications
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Parallel Reduction in Skeletal Density during Benthic to Pelagic Transitions in Baikal Sculpins
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Robust Clustering Analysis of Genes Related to Age-related Macular Degeneration using RNA-seq
Presentations
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Robust Clustering Analysis of Genes Related to Age-related Macular Degeneration using RNA-seq
-
Stochastic Newton-MCMC for Bayesian Inference
Honors & Awards
- IEEE ICHI Student Award (TCII-sponsored), 2026
- Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholar, 2025
- SACNAS Graduate & Professional Chapter of the Year, 2023
- University of Houston Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), 2023
- SACNAS Chapter Best Practices Award — Outstanding STEM Diversity, 2022
- UH Dean's List, 2022–2024
- Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, 2021
- Lone Star College President's List, 2019–2021
- Lone Star College Honors Chancellor Fellow Scholarship, 2019
Leadership & Service
2025 – Present
Founding Co-Treasurer
American Statistical Association (ASA), Rice Chapter
2022 – 2023
Undergraduate Fundraising Officer
SACNAS, University of Houston Chapter
2022 – 2023
Founding Officer & Secretary
Cougars of Data Science, University of Houston
Skills
Python
NumPyPandasscikit-learn
MatplotlibImage Processing
Other Languages
R / RStudioMATLAB (beginner)
Imaging
Micro-CT (Skyscan)Bruker Data Viewer
Bruker DataVoxBruker CT Analyzer
Amira Segmentation
Other Tools
Tableau (beginner)
Languages
EnglishSpanish