Daniel Elías Martín Herranz

Leveraging large multi-modal data from diverse populations and AI/ML for drug discovery and precision medicine.

🚀 On a mission to make novel diagnostics accessible anywhere, anytime and by anyone.

At Hurdle, I led, managed and mentored the Science team. Some of the things we have accomplished: 🧬 Develop novel biomarkers and diagnostics across therapeutic areas and omics types by leveraging bioinformatics and machine learning / AI methods and large human datasets. From conception to diagnostics in-market. Examples include: * First saliva-based biomarker for chronic inflammation during human ageing (2023). https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.21.572866v1.article-info * First CE-marked saliva-based COVID-19 PCR test in Europe (2020). https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/06/saliva-tests-could-help-meet-boris-johnsons-24-hour-target/ * First saliva-based NGS epigenetic biological age test available to consumers (2018). https://www.forbes.com/sites/yiannismouratidis/2018/11/17/we-are-more-than-our-dna/ 🤝 Sign and execute multi-year and multi-million biotech and pharma global partnerships on precision medicine. Examples include Bayer and BioVie. https://www.bayer.com/media/en-us/bayer-and-hurdle-launch-precision-health-strategic-partnership/ https://hurdle.bio/blog/tackling-alzheimers-disease-by-targeting-inflammation/

PhD thesis: On the epigenetic ageing clock in humans University of Cambridge / EMBL-EBI During my PhD, I focused on expanding our understanding of the epigenetic clock in humans, the most accurate biomarker of the ageing process. More specifically, I discovered that mutations in the H3K36 methyltransferase NSD1, which cause Sotos syndrome, accelerate epigenetic ageing. I also developed a computational method, cuRRBS, which solves the problem of enriching for a set of genomic sites using restriction enzymes, therefore reducing associated sequencing costs. During my time at the EBI, I also developed bioinformatics pipelines in R, Python and Bash to process DNA methylation data from array and NGS technologies. Some examples here: https://github.com/demh Supervisor: Professor Dame Janet Thornton (EMBL-EBI) Co-supervisor: Professor Wolf Reik (Babraham Institute / Altos Labs)

During my time in the Transmissible Cancer Group, I analysed NGS data of DFTD (Devil Facial Tumour Disease) samples in order to understand the causes and evolution of this parasitic cancer in Tasmanian devils. Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Murchison Department of Veterinary Medicine / Welcome Trust Sanger Institute

I was elected as Treasurer of FEBiotec's Board of Directors. FEBiotec is the largest student-run biotechnology association in Spain. It provides a new common framework of action for various biotech associations operating locally throughout Spain and represents them as a unit in front of administrations, institutions, companies and society in general.

Collaborating in several projects, such as "Biotechnofarm" and "II Semana de la Biotecnología", related with science communication and biotechnology promotion.

Our goal was to study how DNA sequence influences nucleosome positioning in vivo in two different species of yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The methodology included combining "wet lab" techniques (MNase-Southern Blot assay) and computational approaches (analysis of sequenced DNA from nucleosomes).

Innovagenomics is a biotech startup which develops new genetic diagnostic tools, especially in the area of hereditary and onco-hematological diseases. As part of Innovagenomics, I processed samples for genetic screening, including DNA extraction, PCR and bioinformatics analysis.

Research project carried out in NUIM´s Bioinformatics Lab in collaboration with the Department of Biological Science, George Washington University. Our goal was to analyze the evolution of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger channels in Caenorhabditis elegans using evolutionary bioinformatics methods.