Mengyao Zhao
Software Algorithm Team Manager (Staff Computational Biologist)
Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolMengyao Zhao is a software algorithm leader and staff computational biologist with 15 years of hands-on experience designing high-performance genomic pipelines and production-grade diagnostic software. At Pillar Biosciences she spearheaded a rewrite and modularization of PiVAT that cut runtime nearly in half and reduced memory use by orders of magnitude, and maintains the widely used SIMD Smith-Waterman (SSW) library adopted by industry projects including Illumina and Google. Her background spans diagnostic FDA filings, machine learning–driven QC and classification improvements at Foundation Medicine, and large‑scale genomic data engineering at Harvard and Sanger, reflecting a rare mix of algorithmic depth, systems optimization in C/C++/Python, and regulated product delivery. She combines PhD-level bioinformatics expertise with proven team leadership and a track record of turning computational innovations into robust, production-ready tools.
15 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Science (MSc) Genomics and Pathway Biology, Master of Science (MSc) Genomics and Pathway Biology at The University of EdinburghBachelor of Science (BSc) Computer Science, Bachelor of Science (BSc) Computer Science at Beijing Normal UniversityDoctor of Philosophy (PhD) Bioinformatics, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Bioinformatics at Boston College
English, Chinese
Github Skills (13)
hla8
bioinformatics6
nomenclature6
viterbi6
testing6
python5
structural-biology4
cpp3
protein-structure3
sequence-alignment3
ftp3
simd2
eigen1
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
mengyao/Complete-Striped-Smith-Waterman-Library
Jan 2011 - May 2022
Contributions:4 releases, 243 commits, 21 PRs in 11 years 6 months
mengyao/PHMM-SNP-INDEL-caller
Jun 2011 - Nov 2014
Contributions:234 commits, 2 pushes, 2 comments in 3 years 6 months
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