Dylan Clark
Dylan is a returning senior at UW pursuing College Honors in Molecular Biology (BS) and Philosophy (BA). He originally became interested in computational genomics and infectious disease modeling during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic his freshman year. Pursuing this interest, he joined the Feder Research Group in the Department of Genome Sciences inspired by the lab's focus on tracking viral evolutionary dynamics within people, not just between them. He originally began working on making and visualizing a fitness landscape for an HIV gene using Deep Mutational Scanning data, but has now transitioned to modeling evolutionary dynamics of HIV resistance to immunotherapies.
This year, he has written a simulation which approximates how HIV evolves within people taking these treatments, with the goal of determining how evolutionary processes within the HIV population are responsible for the emergence of this resistance. During his time in the lab, he has benefited greatly from excellent mentorship (Elena Romero & Alison Feder) and has been able to learn about current computational techniques involved in genomics and evolutionary biology due to the welcoming lab environment. The perseverance and effort he put into self-teaching many of these techniques without a strict computer-science background led him to apply to this scholarship. He is very thankful for having received this scholarship that recognizes these efforts.
This award will allow him to devote more time towards finishing analyses on his research project during his final spring quarter, as he prepares to share his research findings at the UW Undergrad Research Symposium and the International Dynamics & Evolution of Human Viruses Conference this June.
Outside of school, Dylan is part of the UW Triathlon Club and enjoys competing in summer races. He also loves rock climbing and mountaineering trips in the Cascades with his friends. In mellower times, he enjoys watercolor painting, drawing, and reading.
Goals
I am currently planning on performing clinical research in Harborview Emergency Department after I graduate. Then, I plan to apply to medical school. My main long term goal is to become a physician. I could see myself becoming an infectious disease specialist, researching precision medicine, or maybe wilderness/expedition medicine since I love remote expeditions!
Tips
Deliberately start writing a week earlier than you think you need to, since it's better to have something down on paper to reshape than nothing at all. Your future self will be thankful!
