Episode 125

SCI & AI (Episode 125)

Guest: Abel Torres Espín

Today we are talking about bioinformatics with Dr. Abel Torres Espín. Abel is an Assistant Professor and Director of the health data DRIVEN lab at the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He has worked with Dr. Karim Fouad at the University of Alberta and with Dr. Adam Ferguson at the University of California San Francisco. Abel is currently working on applying computational, statistical, causal, and machine-learning methods for neuroepidemiology and personalized health research and to predict and understand disease complexity in neurological conditions.

We discuss Abel’s work and interests including the role of Artificial Intelligence in the SCI research landscape. This work is so complex and interesting that you’ll notice we occasionally struggle to even ask the right questions. That said, this episode will reward repeat listens.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Soundcloud

Bumper music: Dig a Hole by Freaque

Guest Bio

Abel Torres Espín is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He holds a BSc in Biology (Universitat de Barcelona), an MSc in biostatistics and bioinformatics (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), and a PhD in Neuroscience (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona). After his PhD, Abel moved to Edmonton to pursue a postdoctoral research period at the University of Alberta with Dr. Karim Fouad, followed by a postdoctoral position at the University of California, San Francisco in the US with Dr. Adam Ferguson. Abel has been at the University of Waterloo since 2023, where he directs the health.data DRIVEN lab and teaches health data science courses. He and his team are currently working on applying computational, statistical, causal, and machine-learning methods for neuroepidemiology and personalized health research, as well as to predict and understand disease complexity in neurological conditions. Abel is also interested in data-driven discovery, open science, reproducibility, and data sharing.

Connect with Abel Torres Espín here: