Aroon Chande

Turning multi-omics data into clinical decisions.

Hi, I'm Aroon. I build software that brings precision medicine to hundreds of thousands of patients.

Now
Staff Bioinformatics Engineer · Color Health
Focus
Clinical & population genomics

About

summary

I build the software and pipelines that turn sequencing and multi-omic data into reproducible, analysis-ready results — collaborating with wet-lab, clinical, and product teams.

At Color, I work on the computational infrastructure returning clinical genetics results for our Virtual Cancer Clinic patients and previously supported the NIH All of Us program, helping return genetics results for over 200,000 participants.

I enjoy working on problems that don't have a clear owner or solution. Before Color I built multi-omics platforms for drug development at Seagen, advised the CDC on biosecurity pathogen-surveillance software, and led COVID-19 response projects like the Event Risk tool (50 million risk predictions to 8 million people) and Georgia Tech's MyTest program (112,000+ tests).

All of Us — NIH All of Us return-of-results — clinical genetics returned for 200,000+ participants across a nationally diverse cohort.PhD — disease-burden models — PhD in human computational genetics — modeling complex-disease burden (T2D, CAD) across Colombia and South America.Pharmacogenetics product — Led a full refresh of the pharmacogenetics product line for oncology care — prioritizing genes and variants for clinical return.Seagen multi-omics platform — Multi-omics analysis platform for oncology drug development; harmonized a 30,000+ patient tumor RNA-seq dataset across TCGA, GTEx, and internal data.CDC surveillance software — Biosecurity pathogen-surveillance software for CDC — detecting select agents (anthrax, Ebola) from environmental samples.COVID-19 Event Risk tool — Lead developer — 50 million risk predictions served to 8 million users. Covered by the NYT, Washington Post, and NPR.MyTest campus testing — Lead developer of the MyTest asymptomatic testing platform — the nation's first campus-wide free covid testing program, 112,000+ tests.Clinical genomics pipelines — Design and validation of the clinical genomics pipelines and return-of-results infrastructure that turn raw sequencing into analysis-ready patient results.Population-genetics analysis code — The pipelines and analysis code behind the admixture, ancestry, and disease-burden models — population-scale genetics.Population geneticsClinical genomicsOncology & drug developmentSoftware & infraPandemic responsePathogen surveillance
  • Population genetics
  • Clinical genomics
  • Oncology & drug development
  • Software & infra
  • Pandemic response
  • Pathogen surveillance

Figure 1.Career connectome. Six career domains (arcs) linked by the projects that bridge them (ribbons). Hover a ribbon for the project, or an arc to isolate a domain.

Experience

Career
B.S. '13–'15Microbiology & Biology, University of IowaM.S. '15–'16Bioinformatics, Georgia Institute of TechnologyCDC / ABL '16–'22Scientific Advisor — biosecurity pathogen surveillance software for CDCPh.D. Bioinformatics '16–'20Human computational genetics, Georgia TechSeagen '20–'22Bioinformatics Scientist — Software for oncology drug developmentColor '22–Staff Bioinformatics Engineer — clinical genomics infrastructure
Skills
LanguagesPython · R · C++ · SQL · Bash · TerraformCloud & InfraAWS · Docker · Kubernetes · CI/CD (GitHub Actions, CircleCI)Pipelines & workflowsNextflow · WDL / Cromwell · Conda / Bioconda · ETL pipelinesFull-stack devFlask · Django · FastAPI · R Shiny · ReactGenomicsWGS · WES · RNA-seq · Microarray · PharmacogeneticsVariant analysisGATK · samtools / bcftools · BWA / minimap2 · VEP / SnpEffData & MLML clustering · Differential expression · Scientific computing

Figure 2.Career & skills track. Roles and skill categories laid out as genome-browser annotation tracks.

Ph.D. BioinformaticsGeorgia Institute of Technology2020

Human computational genetics — models for disease burden across Colombia and South America, focused on complex diseases such as type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease.

May 2022 — Present

Staff Bioinformatics Engineer

Color Health · San Francisco, CA

  • Co-own the computational infrastructure for the NIH All of Us return-of-results program, processing hereditary and pharmacogenetic variants for 200,000+ participants.
  • Led a full refresh of the pharmacogenetics product line for oncology care — combining literature review and computational analysis to prioritize new genes and variants.
  • Design and validate clinical genomics pipelines in a CLIA/CAP-accredited, FDA-regulated environment — collaborating with lab, clinical, and product teams to turn sequencing data into reproducible, analysis-ready results for patient return-of-results.
Aug 2020 — May 2022

Bioinformatics Scientist

Seagen · Seattle, WA

  • Built an R Shiny analysis platform enabling bench scientists to run ML-based clustering and differential gene expression analysis for drug development.
  • Facilitated analysis of a 30,000+ patient harmonized tumor RNA-seq dataset spanning public (TCGA, GTEx, cBioPortal) and internal data.
  • Served as lead developer and technical lead for an integrated platform supporting RNA-seq, proteomics, and IHC pathology annotation; supported design of new cancer cell lines and genome-wide editing screens.
May 2016 — May 2022

Scientific Advisor

Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory · Atlanta, GA

  • Collaborated with CDC on biosecurity-focused pathogen surveillance software for efficient reconstruction of pathogen genes and genomes from environmental samples.
  • Developed novel algorithms and high-performance platforms to simplify analysis of NGS data for detecting select agents (anthrax, Ebola, and other highly contagious viral diseases).
Mar — Aug 2020

COVID-19 Pandemic Response

Georgia Institute of Technology · Atlanta, GA

  • Lead developer for the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool — serving 50 million risk predictions to 8 million users.
  • Lead developer of the MyTest platform for asymptomatic COVID-19 testing — the first campus-wide free testing program in the nation, facilitating over 112,000 tests.
Read the full résumé →

Publications

32 papers · 2014–2026

I've contributed to thirty-plus papers across clinical genomics, population genetics, microbial genomics, and pandemic response.

1101001000localcovid19now: processing and mapping COVID-19 case data at subnational scales — Journal of Open Source Software (2023) · 0 citationsAncestry effects on type 2 diabetes genetic risk inference in Hispanic/Latino populations. — BMC Medical Genetics (2020) · 27 citationsThe Impact of Ethnicity and Genetic Ancestry on Disease Prevalence and Risk in Colombia — Frontiers in Genetics (2021) · 29 citationsThe phenotypic consequences of genetic divergence between admixed Latin American populations: Antioquia and Chocó, Colombia — Genome Biology and Evolution (2020) · 10 citationsGlobAl Distribution of GEnetic Traits (GADGET) web server: polygenic trait scores worldwide — Nucleic Acids Research (2018) · 8 citationsReal-time, interactive website for US-county-level COVID-19 event risk assessment — Nature Human Behaviour (2020) · 77 citationsInfluence of genetic ancestry and socioeconomic status on type 2 diabetes in the diverse Colombian populations of Chocó and Antioquia — Scientific Reports (2017) · 19 citationsRole of the nuclease of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in dispersal of organisms from biofilms — Infection and Immunity (2014) · 27 citationsCharacterization of a nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae Thermonuclease — PLOS ONE (2018) · 1 citationsAnalysis of Vibrio cholerae genomes identifies new type VI secretion system gene clusters — Genome Biology (2019) · 71 citationsSTing: accurate and ultrafast genomic profiling with exact sequence matches — Nucleic Acids Research (2019) · 7 citationsBioconda: sustainable and comprehensive software distribution for the life sciences — Nature Methods (2018) · 1802 citationsGenome-Enabled Molecular Subtyping and Serotyping for Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli — Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (2021) · 489 citationsGenomic characterization and computational phenotyping of nitrogen-fixing bacteria isolated from Colombian sugarcane fields — Scientific Reports (2021) · 28 citationsGenetic ancestry and ethnic identity in Ecuador — Human Genetics and Genomics Advances (2021) · 33 citationsAssortative mating on ancestry-variant traits in admixed Latin American populations — Frontiers in Genetics (2017) · 19 citationsAdmixture-enabled selection for rapid adaptive evolution in the Americas — Genome Biology (2020) · 47 citationsCharacterization of Inner and Outer Membrane Proteins from Francisella tularensis Strains LVS and Schu S4 and Identification of Potential Subunit Vaccine Candidates — mBio (2017) · 20 citationsIdentification and characterization of AckA-dependent protein acetylation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae — PLOS ONE (2017) · 23 citationsCommunicating COVID-19 exposure risk with an interactive website counteracts risk misestimation — PLOS ONE (2023) · 7 citationsPersonalized feedback about immunity corrects risk misestimation and motivates vaccination — PNAS Nexus (2026) · 1 citationsMutations in SORL1 and MTHFDL1 possibly contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease in a multigenerational Colombian Family — PLOS ONE (2022) · 14 citationsRampDB: a web application and database for the exploration and prediction of receptor activity modifying protein interactions — Database (2017) · 3 citationsWhole-Genome Sequences of 26 Vibrio cholerae Isolates — Genome Announcements (2016) · 9 citationsMultiplex Real-time PCR Assay for the Detection of all Chlamydia Species and Simultaneous Differentiation of C. psittaci and C. pneumoniae in Human Clinical Specimens — Annals of Laboratory Medicine (2023) · 6 citationsGenomic analysis of Chlamydia psittaci from a multistate zoonotic outbreak in two chicken processing plants — Journal of Genomics (2023) · 1 citationsAbsence of mgrB Alleviates Negative Growth Effects of Colistin Resistance in Enterobacter cloacae — Antibiotics (2016) · 6 citationsFront. Genet.Nat. Hum. Behav.Nat. MethodsFront. Sustain. Food Syst.HGG AdvancesPopulation geneticsClinical genomicsMicrobial genomicsMethods & toolsPandemic responsecitations →

Figure 3.Publication citations. Each point is a paper, placed by research area (x) and citation count (y, log scale). Hover any point for the title and count.

2021The Impact of Ethnicity and Genetic Ancestry on Disease Prevalence and Risk in ColombiaFrontiers in Genetics · Chande, A.T., Nagar, S.D., Rishishwar, L., Mariño-Ramírez, L., Medina-Rivas, M.A., Valderrama-Aguirre, A., +2Full text
2020Real-time, interactive website for US-county-level COVID-19 event risk assessmentNature Human Behaviour · Chande, A.T., Lee, S., Harris, M., Nguyen, Q., Beckett, S.J., Hilley, T., +2PDFFull textCode
2020Ancestry effects on type 2 diabetes genetic risk inference in Hispanic/Latino populations.BMC Medical Genetics · Chande, A.T., Rishishwar, L., Conley, A.B., Valderrama-Aguirre, A., Medina-Rivas, M.A., Jordan, I.K.PDF
2020The phenotypic consequences of genetic divergence between admixed Latin American populations: Antioquia and Chocó, ColombiaGenome Biology and Evolution · Chande, A.T., Rishishwar, L., Ban, D., Nagar, S.D., Conley, A.B., Rowell, J., +3PDFFull text
2019STing: accurate and ultrafast genomic profiling with exact sequence matchesNucleic Acids Research · Espitia, H., Chande, A.T., Nagar, S.D., Smith H., Jordan, I.K., Rishishwar, L.PDFFull textCode
2017Influence of genetic ancestry and socioeconomic status on type 2 diabetes in the diverse Colombian populations of Chocó and AntioquiaScientific Reports · Chande, A.T., Rowell, J., Rishishwar, L., Conley, A.B., Norris, E.T., Valderrama-Aguirre, A., +2PDFFull text
See all 32 publications →

Get in touch

I’m always glad to talk shop — genomics, software, or both. If you’re working on something interesting in the space, or just want to compare notes, my inbox is open.