Lorenaย Pantano
Director Of Bioinformatics Platform
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Summary
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Top SchoolLorena Pantano is a product-minded scientific leader and Director of Bioinformatics Platform with over a decade of experience building scalable genomics and AI-enabled data platforms that translate complex biology into actionable insights. With a PhD in Bioinformatics and a background in biochemistry, she has led cross-functional teams in academia and biotech to deliver secure, NIH-compliant cloud infrastructure, interactive visualization tools, and decision-support systems for RNA-target discovery and genome editing programs. She blends hands-on engineering (React/TypeScript, Python/R), devops and release automationโevidenced by contributions to widely used open-source projects like MultiQC and Biocondaโwith executive product strategy. Lorena founded and grew Boston Women in Bioinformatics and mentors broadly, reflecting a long-term commitment to community building and diversity in computational biology. Sheโs led large collaborations with industry and top hospitals, and unusually for a director, still codes on core bioinformatics modules and packaging pipelines. Based in Cambridge, MA, she advises startups on data lakes and AI methods that accelerate target discovery and drug development.
12 years of coding experience
13 years of employment as a software developer
PhD Bioinformatics, PhD Bioinformatics at University of Pompeu FabraLicenciada Biochemistry, Licenciada Biochemistry at Universidad de GranadaMsc Bioinformatics in Health Science, Msc Bioinformatics in Health Science at Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Spanish, English, Catalan
Github Skills (26)
data-visualizations10
python10
package-management10
bash10
data-visualisation10
analyse10
conda10
astar10
fstar10
build-automation10
mu10
bioinformatics10
data-visualization10
dstar10
staruml10
Programming languages (19)
Github contributions (5)
chapmanb/cloudbiolinux
Jul 2014 - Apr 2019
CloudBioLinux: configure virtual (or real) machines with tools for biological analyses
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & DevOps Engineer
Back-end Developer & DevOps EngineerContributions:68 commits, 59 pushes, 4 comments in 4 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Lorena contributed to the cloudbiolinux repository by implementing new functionalities related to bioinformatics data processing and analysis. They added features for downloading and integrating data for small RNA-seq and qsignature analysis, demonstrating a focus on expanding the tools available for biological analyses. Furthermore, the user made changes to infrastructure, setting genomeSAindexNbases for STAR indexing and fixing issues with package installation in a symlink folder, which reveals DevOps and build engineering skills. These improvements enhanced the repository's utility and robustness.
analysesmachinesbioinformaticsconfigurebiological
bcbio/bcbio-nextgen
Jun 2014 - Apr 2019
Validated, scalable, community developed variant calling, RNA-seq and small RNA analysis
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:441 commits, 8 PRs, 367 pushes in 4 years 10 months
Contributions summary:Lorena primarily worked on enhancing the bcbio-nextgen repository by modifying the bcbio/variation/mutect.py module. Their contributions focused on improving data formatting, specifically changing "FA" to "FREQ" in the output, and making related code adjustments. They also addressed issues with handling somatic variant output, including standardizing it to the SOMATIC flag. Furthermore, they optimized the code, renaming a function and improving associated documentation, while making the tool more robust.
scalablecallingrnaseqvariant-callinggenomics
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