Antonio Solano was a User Experience and Data Visualization researcher in the lab from 2017 to 2018. He primarily worked on data visualization and design of genomic data for epidemiological surveillance.
He is currently a senior data visualization and user experience designer for a private company called TriNetX, based in Cambridge, MA. He is currently designing a platform for clinical trial feasibility analysis, clinical trial recruitment, and real-world, retrospective analyses, which include clinical outcomes, comparative effectiveness studies, and patient journeys, among others.
He is currently working on designing one of the most advanced visual query builders for clinical cohort definitions available to researchers around the globe. The ability to define “virtual” cohorts of patients with great details allows researchers to target specific populations, including those with rare diseases. These interfaces allow users to modify treatments in near-real time, such as in the case of UTMB Health’s Blocker Burn Center in Galveston, TX. These same interfaces and visualizations are currently helping the FDA’s epidemiologists monitor the use of critical drugs and vaccines for COVID-19 patients. Antonio’s work also supports the FDA’s Sentinel Initiative, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, he occasionally engages in consulting projects, particularly in the area of data visualization for genomics. Two recent projects include the Jackson Laboratory and the NextStrain initiative at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, both of which are NCI-designated Cancer Research Centers.
Additionally, thanks to his work and experiences in the Sabeti Lab, he is now able to mentor graduate and undergraduate students in Costa Rica (where he is originally from) and is actively participating as an external advisor on thesis evaluation committees.
Antonio sees his key accomplishments during his time in the lab as conducting user research with Harvard University students and HUHS clinicians to propose a project for infectious disease surveillance, monitoring and prediction. This work supported a $400K grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that the lab obtained shortly after. While he was focusing on Mumps as a primary pathogen, the work he developed at the time, such as mobile symptom trackers, has now been replicated in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also co-authored a novel visualization platform for the analysis of viral MSAs called NX4 that drastically reduces the cognitive load for the users, completely runs in the browser, and offers a visual alternative to the typical colored matrices used for MSAs.
“The lab is forward-thinking, open to unconventional ideas, and draws value from diversity in all of its forms.”