Gabriel Elijah
Kekia Cole
Pioneering wet- and dry-lab approaches in Neuropharmacogenomics and Computational Neuroscience. Combining solid-phase synthesis of neuroactive peptides and RNA-seq analytics with quantum transport models on high-dimensional neural manifolds.
Oregon State University
Honors B.S. Computer Science (AI) & Biochemistry / Biophysics (Neuroscience)
Minors: Mathematics, Chemistry, Music Performance
Expected Graduation: Spring 2028
Primary_Research_Laboratories
G. E. K. Cole
Translational Neuroscience & Computational Genomics
Bingham Lab — UHCC Genomics
Dr. Jon-Paul Bingham | UH Cancer Center & UH Mānoa
- Solid-phase chemical synthesis & HPLC verification of neuroactive conotoxin analogues targeting ion channels.
- NGS platforms, Qubit/Bioanalyzer QC, & NanoString genome-wide methylation analysis.
- Portable molecular workflows (multi-strain PCR, gel electrophoresis) via Bento Lab.
Saenz Lab — Quantum Systems
Dr. Axel Saenz Rodriguez | Oregon State University
- Quantum random walk simulations in random environments (QRWRE) and quantum spin chain models.
- Qiskit circuit prototyping mapped onto 9-qubit quantum architecture.
- Sparse matrix & tensor-network operator scaling to 20-qubits via hybrid SciPy workflows.
Hendrix Lab — Viroid Genomics
Dr. David Hendrix | Oregon State University
- Bioinformatics & small RNA (sRNA-seq) analysis profiling pathogenic RNA motifs.
- Utilizing fastp, Bowtie, STAR, and DESeq2 for alignment & secondary structure variant profiling.
- Co-author at PAG 2026 on short viroid-derived RNA fragments & 5' heterogeneity.
Publications & Computational_Pipelines
ConoADAMM Neuro-Peptide Pipeline
Python / Biopython / BLASTEngineered organism-agnostic FASTA parsers, overlapping cysteine framework detection algorithms (max distance parameter of 8), N/C-terminal search for cleavage sites, and automated FASTA consolidation for sequence alignments of disulfide-rich neurotoxins.
Honors Thesis: Quantum Transport on Neural Graphs
HPC / Quantum DynamicsModeling non-equilibrium quantum transport dynamics over biological interaction networks and neural manifolds. Architecting HPC pipelines to simulate unitary walk steps across $10^4+$-node interaction graphs.
PAG 2026 Conference Publication
PAG 2026 Co-AuthorCo-author on research presented at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference investigating small RNA loci, 5' heterogeneity, and pathogenic seed regions in hop stunt and citrus exocortis viroids in host plant transcriptomes.
Tulipa uniflora Plastome Network
Network BiologyGraph-theoretic modeling of the 152,254 bp chloroplast genome into a 110-node gene adjacency network. Identified topological hubs (trnM-CAU, ycf1) where functional subgraph density was 4x that of tRNA.
Leadership & Academic_Outreach
QuARC (Quantum Algorithms, Research, & Computing)
Advised by Dr. Matt Graham | Oregon State University
Founded OSU's first student quantum organization, growing membership to 20+ researchers. Built GitHub curriculum for project onboarding and hosting weekly workshops on Grover's algorithm, Qiskit, and quantum gates.
LEAP Scholar Cohort
College of Engineering | Oregon State University
Selected for competitive engineering leadership cohort. Focused on mentorship, technical innovation action projects, and developing interdisciplinary research initiatives spanning computing and life sciences.
Technical_Toolkit & Methods
Dry-Lab & Data Science
Python (Biopython, SciPy, NumPy, Pandas, NetworkX), R, fastp, Bowtie, STAR, DESeq2, BLAST, C/C++, SQL, Bash, Linux HPC Clusters, Docker, Git.
Wet-Lab & Assays
Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis, HPLC Purification, Qubit, Bioanalyzer, NGS Platforms, NanoString Methylation, Bento Lab Workflows (PCR, Gel Electrophoresis).
Quantum & Physics
Qiskit, Quantum Circuit Prototyping, Quantum Random Walks (QRWRE), Tensor Networks, Sparse Matrix Ops (20-Qubit), Spin Chain Models.