Expertise:

• Transcriptomic profiling (bulk and single cell RNA-seq)
• Differential gene expression and pathway enrichment analyses
• Variant calling (SNV, indel, and structural) with different types of data (GBS, WGS, exome capture, etc.)
• Peak calling and annotation (ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, ATAC-seq – single cell and bulk)
• Characterizing genomic and transcriptomic diversity (GWAS, eQTL analysis, TWAS, population structure analysis, LD analysis)
• Automated image analysis using ImageJ
• Coding (R, bash, Python)
• Manuscript and grant writing support

Education:

• Post-doc, Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota
• PhD, Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota
• MS, Biology and Biotechnology, Ball State University
• BS, Biology, Ball State University

Allison is a Bioinformatics Analyst in Research Computing at the University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI). She supports both clinical genomic testing pipelines and research projects in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. Allison brings a strong background in molecular biology research together with advanced skills in bioinformatics and coding, helping bridge experimental and computational approaches. Her graduate training focused on natural genetic variation underlying shoot architecture traits in barley, where she identified candidate loci and described links between shoot architecture and agronomic performance. She also performed transcriptomic profiling of developing shoot meristems to uncover differences between main shoots and lateral branches. During her postdoctoral work, she collaborated with European crop research institutes to characterize genomic, transcriptomic, and phenotypic diversity across 209 European barley cultivars, representing nearly two centuries of breeding history. Before joining MSI, Allison served as the primary bioinformatics analyst for a research lab at Indiana University, where she identified genomic variants and transcriptomic changes associated with congenital heart disease and used single-cell transcriptomics to profile developing mouse hearts. In her current role, Allison is committed to providing clear, practical bioinformatics support that empowers researchers to make the most of their data.