User:Aaron.aude

Greetings!

I live in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio known as Liberty Township and have a fantastic family - a great wife, three kids and a cat. Although my formal education is in Biology and Chemistry (BS Biology, minor chemistry), I took a bit of a turn into information technology in mid 1997 when the internet bubble was growing rapidly. Interestingly I was introduced to software development during my senior thesis, when I was investigating cardiac output in the American lobster. I had to develop the protocols and algorithms to calculate area under a thermodilution curve in near real-time. As you can imagine in 1994-1996 the tools to do this were limited (SuperScope, National Instruments LabView, etc.) and primitive. Nevertheless, I wrapped up my work and moved into working with a biotechnology company and helped them navigate FDA testing and sign-off for a a novel ELISA test designed to detect H. pylori antigen in stool.

Since that time with the biotech company, I've been a consultant to small, large and very large organizations. Initially I helped design and build software applications, but have moved into more practice management and industry specific consulting. Over the past three years, I've been working in a national role, bringing thoughts and approaches to collaboration using portal and social collaboration technologies. Still very much a consultant, I sincerely enjoy learning about new companies, meeting new people and solving really challenging problems.

About six years ago I realized I wanted to get back into the bioscience / health science field. I investigated paths to do this, and started thinking of ways to combine my systems and consulting experience with my biology/chemistry background. BioInformatics appeared to be a great fit - and despite a bit of procrastination for a year or so, I found Johns Hopkins program in late 2010.

I was accepted last March into the MS BioInformatics program, and have been thrilled to be part of this program and the university and work with all of you.