Johannes P. Johnson-Martínez

Biography

I am a Bioengineering: Data Science PhD student at the University of Washington, co-advised by Sean Gibbons and Leroy Hood at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB).

Raised in Texas, I earned my BS in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University, where I engaged in biochemical engineering research projects such as working to develop convective PCR mobile healthcare diagnostics and tuning bioreactors for carotenoid hyper-producing yeast under Victor Ugaz and Katy Kao. The great mentorship and experience I received while in the lab fueled my interest in engineering research. Soon after, I was offered a full-time position as a R&D Associate Engineer in Global R&D at PepsiCo. I seized this opportunity to learn more about research and working in global teams at a large Fortune 50 Company, where I developed a career in managing technical projects and scaling-up various processes for billion-dollar food brands like Lay’s and Doritos. After four years of growing, learning, and a promotion, I decided to leave PepsiCo and begin the journey back to school with the Bioengineering PhD program at the UW in Seattle so that I could return to clinically impactful research. During my search for programs and labs, I explored the most interesting bioengineering topics I could find, and I became fascinated with systems biology and looking at human health as a system of inputs and outputs–a framework taught to me during my chemical engineering studies.

Now as a graduate student in the Hood-Price Lab and Gibbons Lab, my interests have led me to exploring computational systems biology in topics spanning the human gut microbiome, gastrointestinal and kidney disease, constipation and bowel movement frequency aberrations, the gut-brain-axis, the gut-kidney-axis, and healthy aging. In particular, I am interested in learning more about how changes in the gut microbiome, blood plasma metabolome, and proteome influence aging, damage and changes to distal organ systems. I investigate these topics using computational biology techniques spanning multi-omics and metagenomic data processing. I want to combine computer science, biochemistry, and engineering to answer questions at the nexus of microbial ecology, human health, scientific wellness, and age-related disease.

When I am not researching and studying, I enjoy drawing and painting, cooking, trying new food and music, traveling outside the country, walking around beautiful Seattle, and spending time with my family and friends.