Hello and welcome to my blog! I’m Jackie Valeri (she/her), and I’m thrilled to share a bit about myself and my interests with you.

Who Am I? 👋

Brief Introduction

I currently work as a Data Scientist at Moderna, where I am part of a data science team within research and early development. I hold a PhD in Biological Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where I was a Siebel Scholar (Class of 2023) and a Takeda Fellow (2021-2022) in the lab of Jim Collins. My research in the Collins Lab centered around machine learning for small molecule drug discovery, specifically antibiotics, as well as training sequence-to-function models for synthetic biology applications. I hold Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania where I also obtained a minor in computer science.

I originally got interested in bioengineering in high school, where it seemed like the perfect marriage of math, problem-solving, and the life sciences. I never envisioned myself as a programmer, but I learned how to code almost 10 years ago to help me analyze biological data. I have never looked back and now love working on projects where I can use computational analyses (the “dry lab”) to help solve the problems of bench scientists (the “wet lab”).

Why I’m Blogging

I’ve decided to start blogging as a way to document my learning journey. By writing about new techniques, tools, and methodologies, I can reinforce my understanding. The act of putting together a post forces me to learn more and go deeper than I otherwise would by just reading an article or talking about a project.

Now that I’m (mostly!) out of the academic cycle of peer review, it is also really exciting to have a landing zone for my work so that it can see the light of day. My manager Eric Ma at Moderna has encouraged me to start blogging to share my insights, understandings, and “just for fun” projects.

What You Can Expect 💬

LLMs

This is the obligatory section to share how and why I will be using LLMs in these posts. I use (and plan to use) LLMs for idea generation, drafting content, and improving readability. I will never post output copied right right from LLMs - typically, output is heavily edited. Regardless, I take responsibility for all content that I am posting and will stand by each word.

Additionally, I’ll be writing some code with the assistance of LLMs. Typically, my LLM usage takes the form of generating full code snippets, providing debugging assistance, and helping me to learn new libraries and code styles. As above, I will stand by each line of code I post or use, and I will only post code I understand.

Future Posts

On this blog, I plan to write a few different types of posts reflecting my interests and expertise. These include technical tutorials, data science projects, resources for learning, and reflections on trends in the field. Stay tuned for updates!

Let’s Connect 🌐

I’m excited to connect with other folks in the field of bioengineering and data science in biotech. Whether you’re interested in discussing anything I post about or just want to share ideas, feel free to reach out.