pieces of DNA
of lab tests
of environmental factors
pieces of DNA
of lab tests
of environmental factors
SelfDecode is a personalized health report service, which enables users to obtain detailed information and reports based on their genome. SelfDecode strongly encourages those who use our service to consult and work with an experienced healthcare provider as our services are not to replace the relationship with a licensed doctor or regular medical screenings.
Joe Cohen, founder of SelfDecode, SelfHacked and LabTestAnalyzer is a thriving speaker and entrepreneur that has been independently researching health and science for over 15 years. Growing up with a myriad of health issues that conventional medicine failed to solve pushed Joe to study his own genes to get to the root cause of his problems.
After fixing his chronic health issues with a personalized gene-based approach to health, he knew that he needed to share this information with the masses. Founding SelfHacked, LabTestAnalyzer and SelfDecode was Joe’s way of helping people take their health into their own hands.
Now, Joe regularly speaks at events alongside the world’s top health experts and continues to work on enhancing his company’s products to provide people with access to cutting-edge tools and information designed to optimize health.
Dr. Puya Yazdi is a physician-scientist with 15+ years of proven success in R&D, including 7+ years of executive experience. He received his undergraduate education at the University of California at Irvine, a Medical Doctorate from the University of Southern California, and was a Resident Physician at Stanford University. He has successfully developed 10+ precision medicine products, a history of peer-reviewed publications, intellectual property acquisitions, clinical trials, regulatory filings, in addition to authoring numerous white papers, hundreds of lay publications, winning numerous awards, and speaking at leading international conferences and companies.
His mission in life is to bring the power and promise of genomics and AI/ML to the masses and help transform healthcare in the 21st century.
Umar currently works at SelfDecode as the Lead Data Engineer. His mission is to explore and innovate the next generation of AI technology. He has a wide range of interdisciplinary expertise, with over 7 years of experience as a CTO and Software Engineer as well as extensive knowledge of Natural Language Processing systems. Before joining SelfDecode, he collaborated with the University of California Berkeley on a research partnership. This partnership aimed to apply topic modeling and other AI models to solve financial compliance problems and fill scaling gaps in regulatory oversight.
Throughout his career, he has built countless data mining and analytics systems on top of both structured and unstructured data sets. He also successfully led a bid to enter the HotDesq program (a government initiative program in Queensland, Australia) with the objective of scaling up innovative tech start-ups from all over the world. One of his several great achievements in recent years was leading a successful bid for an IBM grant to build a SaaS platform for DataOps and MLOps.
He has a passion for science and technology and is excited to be using his leadership and experience in AI/ML to solve the world’s biggest challenges in genomics and precision medicine.
Former Employee
Dr. Jon Lerga Jaso received his M.Sc. in Bioinformatics and Ph.D. in Genetics. His graduate and postgraduate research was focused on the functional impact of human polymorphic inversions on gene expression, epigenetic changes, and phenotypic variation. Before joining SelfDecode as a Bioinformatics Scientist, he worked at the genetic testing company tellmeGen, where he developed algorithms for ancestry inference and discovering distant relatives through DNA.
During his education and professional career, he was awarded several distinctions, such as ‘Premio Extraordinario’ (Valedictorian), ‘Premio Nacional Fin de Carrera’ (nationwide award for Science degree in Spain), ‘La Caixa’ doctoral fellowship (the most prestigious fellowship for doctoral studies in Spain), Ph.D. Cum Laude Award and International Doctoral Research Mention. He has authored multiple research articles in high-quality journals, in addition to speaking at leading conferences in genomics.
His mission is to uncover the contributions of the human genome to disease and use this information to transform people’s health.
Dr. Biljana Novkovic is a scientist with 10+ years of research and development experience in the life sciences. Her mission is to improve preventive healthcare through translating cutting-edge scientific research into products that improve people’s lives. She received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in genetics from one of Japan’s top universities, where she studied evolution and population genetics.
She has worked previously in multiple leadership roles across the biotechnology industry. She is an author of several scientific peer-reviewed publications and hundreds of lay articles on health-related subjects.
Dr. Adriano De Marino has over 4 years of experience as a bioinformatics scientist in the biotechnology industry. He received his M.Sc. degree in Bioinformatics from Rome University (Italy) and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Milan University (Italy). His expertise lies in writing novel bioinformatic algorithms related to genomics, utilizing the latest breakthrough technologies.
He has authored several peer-reviewed publications in addition to speaking at major genomics conferences. He was also the ideator, co-founder, and developer of COVIDZONE, a web-based app that helped Italians keep track of COVID-19 restrictions during the pandemic. His mission in life is to use his talent for writing novel genomic algorithms to revolutionize precision medicine.
Dr. Dufloux grew up in the Paris area where he spent most of his teenage years geeking away and coding in various languages. He received his PhD in mathematics in 2015 at University Paris 13 where he studied the Hausdorff dimension of limit sets, an area of research that stands at the intersection of geometry, dynamical systems, and statistics.
He spent 3 years as post-doc in Finland before embarking on a career as a data engineer. He was previously a team lead at Societe Generale Investment Banking. He has published numerous articles and spoken at leading international conferences.
Dr. Marcelinus Rocky Hatorangan is a scientist who brings with him over 12 years of experience in life sciences research and development. He is an “omics” expert with specializations in genomics, epigenomics, and genome assembly. He has established several science divisions in bioinformatics, next-generation sequencing, and genome editing for various companies. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He is an MITxPRO-certified big data analyst.
He has successfully published in the fields of genomic imprinting, hybridization barriers, tissue culture, and transporter genes, in addition to serving in management roles at large companies in the life sciences industry.
Former Employee
Dr. Carlos Tello Lacal is a scientist with over 10 years of research and development experience in life sciences. His mission is to use his research and analytical skills to improve people’s quality of life. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in molecular biology from the Universidad de Sevilla, where he studied ion transport in plants. He has authored several peer-reviewed publications, academic books, and custom-made review papers, as well as 100+ lay articles on health-related topics. In addition, he has edited scientific manuscripts and Ph.D. theses, and written approaches to industry-specific problems.
During the course of his varied research career, he has helped develop an anti-hangover drink and conduct analysis on a breast cancer screening test.
Dr. Christine Emilien brings with her 6 years of industry experience, as well as expertise in regulatory affairs. She received her Ph.D. in Nutritional Science with a minor in Communications from Iowa State University.
Prior to joining the SelfDecode team, she worked in various managerial and regulatory affairs roles, with an emphasis on FDA regulations for foods, supplements, cosmetics, and medical devices. She has conducted human clinical trials investigating fiber and appetite in adults, in addition to authoring numerous scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Former Employee
Dr. Manfred Grabherr is a world renowned expert in genomics, bioinformatics, and AI who brings with him over 30 years of experience across both academia and industry. Manfred received his PhD in applied physics from the University of Technology Vienna, Austria (TU Wien) in 1992.
He’s previously worked at IBM, Philips, Lernout & Hauspie, and Voice Signal Technologies. In 2003 he joined the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as a computational biologist.
Manfred has over 60 publications in top journals (Nature, Science, etc), 35k citations & numerous patents.
Former Employee
Dr. Lewis Cuthbertson has over 6 years of experience in genomics and next-generation sequencing technology. Dr. Cuthbertson spent several years researching the biodiversity of bacterial communities of the Arctic and Antarctic, while also serving as a researcher for a DNA sequencing service provider. At this company, he was involved in several health-based microbiome studies.
These studies gave him insight as to how the highly diverse and “hidden” portion of human health can potentially impact an individual’s quality of life. Ultimately, this fueled his desire to help others understand their own complex health needs through the most current scientific research.
Former Employee
Ralph Kenney has over 20 years of successful C-level experience in technology, healthcare,and e-commerce working for both Fortune 500s and startups. As COO, he has taken a previous company from start-up to successful IPO in 6 years. He also founded and led a profitable 7 figure business.
Ralph began his professional career at AT&T Bell laboratories where he wrote data communications protocols for high-speed packetized voice and co-authored the CCITT international standard for signaling for frame relay networks. He’s published in peer reviewed telecommunications and physics journals. He holds an MS in Electrical Engineering with a specialization in the physics of solid state materials.
Eliana received her Bachelor of Engineering degree from McGill University.
She started her career as a Product Manager at Google, and quickly realized that she would better thrive in a startup environment.
Eliana was the first Product Manager hired by SelfDecode.
After 4 years of working at SelfDecode, Eliana now operates as Chief of Product, leading multiple concurrent projects, managing several product development teams, defining project scope, handling communications and setting timelines.
Aleksa completed his M.Sc. degree in Pharmacy. During this time, he conducted research on protein sources in vegetarian and vegan diets. Prior to joining SelfDecode as a Medical Communications Specialist, he worked as a Pharmacist and a freelance health writer. He also spent 3 months in India researching advanced drug delivery systems. His areas of expertise lie in functional medicine, supplementation, and the microbiome.
His mission is to help people understand their bodies better, thereby helping them to live healthier and happier lives.
Andrew brings with him 10 years of experience in software development, including previous leadership roles. Andrew received his M.Sc. degree with Honors in Information Technologies and Systems – Computer Engineering from the Poltava National University of Technology. He has successfully led or taken part in over 16 large software projects focusing on healthcare or finance. He has vast experience working with different frontend technologies and computer programming languages.
His mission is to use his engineering expertise to solve the most complex problems and deliver revolutionary software solutions in precision medicine.
Sandra brings with her over 7 years of experience in analyzing large-scale genomics data in high-performance computer clusters. Sandra earned her M.Sc. in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she studied population genetics. In addition to her technical skill set in big data analysis, she has professional experience collecting, managing, and analyzing genomic data for universities and federal agencies.
She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in addition to presenting at local and national conferences. While her previous work has been conservation-oriented, her interest in how personalized genetics can improve health outcomes brought her to SelfDecode.
Gonzalo completed his M.Sc. in Medical and Pharmaceutical Drug Innovation at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). During this time, he did research on stem cells, immunology, and drug screening. Before joining SelfDecode as a Science/Researcher Writer, he spent 3 months at Purdue University doing research on Molecular Pharmacology. He also worked on Natural Products research, created a science popularization project, and performed as a COVID-19 Vaccine Medical Information Specialist.
Gonzalo is interested in increasing health literacy by bringing science to the general public. He believes that empowering people to leverage current medical research will engage them more in their own healthcare. He deems this crucial to paving the way for democratized personalized medicine.
Deepu brings with him over 4 years of experience working as a Data Scientist at Deloitte where he won two Outstanding Performance Awards for delivering machine learning/optimization solutions for clients including Philips, Thermo Fisher, OneWeb, TjX, Motorola and Delta Airlines.
Later he decided to pursue his passion for AI and joined the top analytics programme in India – a tri-institute programme jointly offered by IIT Kharagpur, ISI Kolkata and IIM Calcutta. He aims to use his machine learning and optimization expertise to solve complex problems in genomics.
Former Employee
Haley is an experienced Genomics Scientist who believes that by understanding our unique evolutionary history, we can better treat and prevent the emergence of complex diseases. Her mission is to improve human health by understanding interactions between genomics, the environment, and culture through an evolutionary lens. She received her M.Sc. in Anthropology (specializing in Evolutionary Genetics) from the University of Zürich.
Prior to joining SelfDecode, she worked as a research assistant for a group conducting cancer research, as a field technician on a long-term marine animal genetics research project, and as a technologist in an aquaponics start-up (agricultural innovation). She has presented her work at leading international conferences.
Former Employee
Rupa double majored in Mathematics and Physics at MIT before receiving her M.Sc. in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of Florida. She brings with her 3 years of experience in the biotechnology industry as a research and development scientist. During this time, she worked for companies like Thermo Fisher and Curtiss Healthcare and contributed to important projects related to gene therapy and vaccines.
She also has extensive research experience and several publications under her name, having studied everything from breast cancer to coal fuel. Her mission is to improve the field of precision medicine by giving people access to the latest cutting-edge information about their own health. She aims to encourage people and their physicians to optimize individualized healthcare.
Former Employee
Jim completed his M.S.W. in Social Work Administration at Portland State University. He has always been interested in analyzing social issues, and he helped fund and start a program against domestic violence. He has also conducted many public speaking sessions about violence against women, and published 3 fiction novels.
Inspired by SelfDecode’s mission to make precision health a reality, he decided to use his natural writing ability to help teach the world about the power and promise of genomics. His areas of interest include science-based writing, astronomy, and genomics.
Former Employee
Karatug brings over 6 years of software engineering experience, gained at some of the biggest companies in the world (including Accenture and Siemens). Karatug received his M.Sc. in mathematics and was a Ph.D. student at Indiana University Bloomington before embarking on a career path in software development.
He was granted a full-merit scholarship for his undergraduate and graduate studies, in addition to winning the Accenture Core Values Award in September 2015.
Former Employee
Shany received her M.Sc. in Neuroscience from Western University (Canada), where she conducted research on Alzheimer’s disease. During this time, she also taught anatomy and neurobiology to university students, while organizing conferences and seminars on the side.
Before joining SelfDecode as a Medical Communications Specialist, she gathered extensive human- and cell-based lab experience, and presented her research findings at numerous conferences. Shany believes that research should be accessible to everyone, regardless of scientific background. Her mission is to help others optimize their health and wellbeing – as well as to help them understand the science behind it all.
Former Employee
Jasmine received her B.Sc. in Agricultural & Environmental Science from McGill University (Canada), and her B.Ed. from Vancouver Island University (Canada). Prior to joining SelfDecode as a Medical Communications Specialist, she served as the Head of the Science Department at Luke Mettaweskum School (Quebec). There, she collected data on student objectives in literacy & numeracy and developed diversified educational materials.
She has over 5 years of experience working in the medical industry, where she has written 500+ science pieces. These include blog posts, marketing ebooks, and wellness reports. Her mission is to help people understand how their bodies work and how genetics interact in the process.
Former Employee
Former Employee
Alex has 7 years of professional experience as an AI software engineer in Valeo’s biggest R&D center working on market-leading projects for clients including AUDI, Daimler, and Honda working on robotics, computer vision, NLP, and optimization problems. For his MSc. thesis at the German University in Cairo, he is currently working on utilizing AI and neuroscience for vision restoration.
Growing in a family with several chronic health conditions which acute medicine has poorly helped with making it worse with time, he started researching independently for ways to manage those conditions and grew a passion for nutrition and lifestyle resulting in significant improvements with 80% fewer medications. His current mission is to work on products that have a positive life-saving impact on people’s lives by revolutionizing healthcare at the top of the list.
Leonardo brings over 14 years of industry experience across multiple roles. He has an Industrial Engineering background from the Argentine University of Business with specializations in Data Science (IBM) and Agile Development (University of Virginia). He has broad professional experience in different industries and worked in several top-tier multinational companies, like Saint-Gobain, Techint, Honda, and Bayer.
He co-founded and served as COO of Auravant, an AgTech company that helps farmers use seeds and agrochemicals in the most efficient way possible based on satellite imagery. His work has been selected by both the BIC and Copernicus programs of the European Space Agency and was featured two times in Forbes Argentina.
Varuna brings with him over 13 years of software engineering experience, including over 4 years of experience in leadership roles. He received his B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science from one of the top universities in Sri Lanka (Sri Jayewardenepura), where he was awarded the valedictorian. He worked closely with Canon Inc. to build industry-leading software solutions for digital printing presses. He eventually helped co-found Eniplex (Pvt) Ltd, where he served as CTO and worked closely with top companies to provide software solutions. His clients included DISCO Inc.
He brings with him deep experience in data and software engineering, including experience and knowledge in AI/ML. He is passionate about combining AI with genomics to uncover the secrets of life.
Former Employee