I am a postdoc in the PejLab at Scripps Research and in the Palmer Lab at UC San Diego. I use computational approaches to study genomic regulatory variation. My current focus is on outbred rats, which are often used to study the genetic influences of behavior. I am using gene expression to better understand, and improve detection of, genetic associations with psychiatric traits. I set up and manage the RatGTEx Portal.
I received my PhD in Quantitative and Computational Biology from Princeton University, advised by Mona Singh. My research involved amino acid substitution impact, cancer mutations in zinc finger domains, and linking gene expression with tissue images. As an undergraduate at the University of North Texas, I majored in Biology and conducted computational microbiome research with Qunfeng Dong.
Publications
Google Scholar profile
ORCID profile
Preprint The regulatory landscape of multiple brain regions in outbred heterogeneous stock rats
Munro et al. bioRxiv 2022
Joint analysis of gene expression levels and histological images identifies genes associated with tissue morphology
Ash*, Darnell*, Munro*, and Engelhardt Nature Communications 2021
DeMaSk: a deep mutational scanning substitution matrix and its use for variant impact prediction
Munro and Singh Bioinformatics 2020
Website
A protein-centric approach for exome variant aggregation enables sensitive association analysis with clinical outcomes
Human Mutation 2020
Two critical positions in zinc finger domains are heavily mutated in three human cancer types
Munro et al. PLOS Computational Biology 2018
News article
Similarities and seasonal variations in bacterial communities from the blood of rodents and from their flea vectors
The ISME Journal 2015
Association of host and microbial species diversity across spatial scales in desert rodent communities
PLOS One 2014
Bacterial community profiling of milk samples as a means to understand culture-negative bovine clinical mastitis
PLOS One 2013
Investigation of the effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus on subgingival plaque microbiota by high-throughput 16S rDNA pyrosequencing
PLOS One 2013
A web-based multi-genome synteny viewer for customized data
BMC Bioinformatics 2012
The arthropod, but not the vertebrate host or its environment, dictates bacterial community composition of fleas and ticks
The ISME Journal 2013
Talks
Identification of regulatory landscape in multiple brain regions of outbred heterogeneous stock rats
Complex Trait Consortium-Rat Genomics 2021 meeting
Writing
Methods for Solving Protein Structures
Metaculus Journal, 2022
The Path to Controlling Cancer
Metaculus Journal, 2021
Lifespan Extension in Dogs and Longevity Research Signals
Metaculus Journal, 2021
The Neverending Interview
The Cooper Square Review, 2019
Et cetera
SEQUENCE
I collaborated with Jin Angdoo on a short experimental film about proteins. It was runner-up for the Symbiosis Award at the Imagine Science Film Festival 2019.
I am the Website Manager for the COVID-19 National Scientist Volunteer Database. I also designed the logos for both NSVD and EndCoronavirus.org:
PBNify
I created a web app to convert any image into a printable paint by number outline.