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Research by the Numbers: The Power of Data to Transform Individualized Medicine

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Crunching billions of data points requires high-performance computers and people who can run them—like Arjun Athreya.

A third-year Ph.D. candidate in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Arjun conducted pharmacogenomics research at the Mayo Clinic for Individualized Medicine in summer 2015 through an institutional partnership that brings together top thinkers in technology and medicine.

He develops and applies computational models to statistically analyze the impact of metformin, a drug used to manage type 2 diabetes that also shows promise in treatment of certain breast cancers. Their models are helping researchers identify genetic mutations in tumors that affect a patient’s response to metformin.

Read about the work Arjun has done here.