At the intersection of computer science, biology, and big data

Professor Eran Segal, a faculty member at the Weizmann Institute of Science, delivered a riveting talk Monday, May 30, 2022, to a packed crowd at MBZUAI. University leadership, dignitaries, and university faculty joined Segal as he explored his work as part of the Human Phenotype Project. Segal, a computer scientist by trade, works at the intersection of many disciplines, namely applied mathematics, statistics, biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, genetics, ecology, and evolution.

Watch the full program

The Human Phenotype Project

Segal presented The Human Phenotype Project, a large-scale (>10,000 participants) deep-phenotype biobank that he has established, aimed at identifying ways that knowledge of both the human genome, and the way those genes are expressed, might aid the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Segal’s deep profiling includes medical history, lifestyle and nutritional habits, vital signs, anthropometrics, blood tests, continuous glucose and sleep monitoring, and molecular profiling of the transcriptome, genetics, gut and oral microbiome, metabolome and immune system.

Segal is also looking to add additional geographical locations and ethnic groups to his current population base. His analyses of this data promises to provide novel insights into the causes and contributing factors to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. He also hopes to identify hundreds of new areas of interest and therapeutic use at the microbiome, metabolite, and immune system level. Ultimately, his predictive models will be translated into personalized disease prevention and treatment plans, and to the development of new therapeutic modalities based on metabolites and the microbiome.

About Professor Eran Segal

Segal is a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, where he runs the Segal Lab. He earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in computer science under Daphne Koller, with a minor in genetics. Previously he was a Fellow at the Center for Studies in Physics and Biology at Rockefeller University in New York, U.S.A.