Buri Gershom, MSc
Differential expression analysis of count data - a bottom up approachFriday 2 June, 14:00, AIMS Main Lecture Hall
Abstract: The most widely-used tests for differential expression of genes were developed in a top-down manner, based on certain intuitive but nonetheless adhoc assumptions about the probabilistic structure of gene expression data. In contrast, I show here that a more realistic probabilistic structure emerges from a ``bottom up" mathematical model, thus obviating the need for adhoc assumptions. I build statistical test based on this new model, and show that it compares favourably with the best existing tools when applied to two benchmark datasets.
About: Buri Gershom completed his Bachelors degree in science (Mathematics and Physics) from Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda. He then joined AIMS Ghana where he completed a Structured Masters degree and a and Masters by research. He is now enrolled as a PhD student in applied Mathematics at Stellenbosch University. His interests focus on computational biology and data science.