Bojing Blair Jia

Education

• Ph.D. Bioinformatics & Systems Biology, UC San Diego (2019 - Present)
• M.D. School of Medicine, UC San Diego (2017 - Present)
• B.Sc. Quantitative Biology, McGill University (2011 - 2015)

Research

I am a UCSD MD-PhD student training under Prof. Bing Ren, studying bioinformatics algorithm development. I draw inspiration from mathematical physics and computer science to try and solve challenges we face in modern medicine.

My research interests are:

• 3-D genome, cytogenetics & epigenomics
• In-situ genome imaging & sequencing
• Image & signal processing

We recently developed a spatial genome aligner, an algorithm that can unravel tightly intertwined sister-chromatids and even extranumerary chromosomes are organized inside cells, exceeding the capabilities of human and current machine vision to count chromosomes.

News

• [Sept 2022] My abstract was selected for a presentation at the 2022 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Epigenetics & Chromatin meeting.
• [July 2022] My talk on spatial genome alignment won Best Talk: Bioengineering & Structural Biology at the 37th MD-PhD National Student Conference in Copper Mountain, CO.
• [June 2022] I was awarded a Diversity Travel Award for the 37th MD-PhD National Student Conference, and selected for an oral presentation.
• [May 2022] My abstract was selected for a poster presentation at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Genome Organization & Nuclear Function meeting.
• [March 2022] Our pre-print on spatial genome alignment is live on bioRxiv.

Publications

	A spatial genome aligner for multiplexed DNA-FISH Bojing Jia, Adam Jussila, Colin Kern, Quan Zhu and Bing Ren bioRxiv, 2022. [PDF] [Code] [Oral Presentation]
	Parallelized cytoindentation using convex micropatterned surfaces Bojing Jia, Tse-Luen (Erika) Wee, Colton G. Boudreau, Daniel J. Berard, Adiel Mallik, David Juncker, Claire M. Brown and Sabrina R. Leslie BioTechniques, 2016. [PDF]
	Single-molecule microscopy using tunable nanoscale confinement Christopher MJ McFaul, Jason Leith, Bojing Jia, François Michaud, Adriel Arsenault, Andrew Martin, Daniel Berard and Sabrina Leslie SPIE, 2013. [PDF]

About me

Born and raised in Japan by Chinese parents, I grew up and studied in Canada before moving to the United States.

I am a patient with a disability, a student-physician, and a researcher. Modern medicine has given me a new life and it’s my singular ambition to help find answers that aren’t here yet.

As a benefactor of translational medicine, I’m proud to say I can roll out of bed, tie my shoes, pick things up from the ground. I’m grateful to have been able to participate in activities such as:

• 2019 New York City Marathon : I ran a 3:18:22, finally visiting every borough in NYC.
• 2015 Glocknerkönig : I cycled up the highest mountain in Austria in 2:01:05!

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