Hi, I'm Alistair Martin, a Data Scientist, Bioinformatician & Statistician living in Austria
Please explore my website below where you can find out about my research, my background and my passions.
About Me
With over a decade of computational research experience at top research institutions across the world, and in fields ranging from Cancer Genomics to Quantum Mechanics, I consider myself a knowledgeable and versatile scientist with a diverse set of expertise. Driven by a love for (logic) puzzles, science has proven to be a perfect fit, as solving and explaining the behaviour of the world through careful research and experimentation provides me with endless fun.
Research
My current position, as a Senior Data Scientist at Symptoma involves applying machine learning, natural language processing, and classical statistics to medical data. Using just the symptoms entered by a user in a chatbot, the algorithms that I have helped develop will return the correct diagnosis over 90% of the time.
Education
2012-2019: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Statistics
Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
2007-2012: Masters of Chemical Physics with Industrial Experience
Department of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
2010-2011: International Exchange Student
Department of Chemistry, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Research Experience
2020 onwards: Senior Data Scientist, Symptoma, Vienna
Artifical intelligence driven medical diagnosis.
2017-2020: Postdoctoral Researcher, CRUK, University of Cambridge
Multi-faceted investigation into breast cancer and its heterogeneity at the transcriptional level.
2013-2017: Doctoral Student, University of Oxford
Investigating the structural information contained within mRNA above and beyond the mere specification of the amino acid.
2015: Visiting Researcher, UCB
Building a web platform for the identification and tracking of disruptive technologies.
2013: Rotation Student, University of Oxford
Developing a new mathematical framework for cellular modelling that captures the physical properties of monolayers.
2011-2012: Masters Student, University of Edinburgh
Determination of the hydrogenation pathway of ethylene on a Pt(111) surface using first-principle techniques.
2011: Visiting Academic, UC Berkeley
Exploring the possibilities of using polarisation in ultrafast Raman spectroscopy to reduce the HL(III) and HL(IV) contributions to the spectrum.
2011: Student Researcher, A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing
Theory and simulations of solute cage formation around dissolved gasses and determination of partial molar volumes.
2010-2011: Student Researcher, Nanyang Technological University
Theory and simulations of the effects of polarisation in ultrafast Raman spectroscopy on third-order cascade effects observed in deuterated chloroform.
2009: Research Assistant, Max-Planck Institute for Iron Research
Electrochemical characterisation via a scanning droplet cell of binary and tertiary metal gradients created by physical vapour deposition.
Publications
Landscapes of cellular phenotypic diversity in breast cancer xenografts and their impact on drug response
Nature Communications, 12(1):1998 (2021)
An artificial intelligence-based first-line defence against COVID-19: digitally screening citizens for risks via a chatbot
Scientific Reports, 10(1):19012 (2020)
Diagnostic Accuracy of Web-Based COVID-19 Symptom Checkers: Comparison Study
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(10):e21299 (2020)
Landscape of G-quadruplex DNA structural regions in breast cancer
Nature Genetics, 52(9):878-883 (2020)
Metabolic Imaging Detects Resistance to PI3Kα Inhibition Mediated by Persistent FOXM1 Expression in ER+ Breast Cancer
Cancer Cell, 38(4):516-533.e9 (2020)
Shieldin complex promotes DNA end-joining and counters homologous recombination in BRCA1-null cells
Nature Cell Biology, 20(8):954-965 (2018)
10 simple rules for surviving an interdisciplinary PhD
PLoS Computational Biology, 13(5):e1005512 (2017)
Variation and decomposition of the partial molar volume of small gas molecules in different organic solvents derived from molecular dynamics simulations
The Journal of Chemical Physics, 139:244506 (2013)
Theoretical simulation and preparation of binary and ternary combinatorial libraries by thermal PVD
Physica Status Solidi A, 207:801-606 (2010)