Summary
Languages
Skills
Education
Work History
Overview
Publications
Highlighted Projects
Timeline
Jose Maria Restrepo

Jose Maria Restrepo

Montreal,QC

Summary

Neuroscientist with a Ph.D. from McGill University, specializing in computational biology and digital production. Over 6 years of experience in applying computational methods to analyze complex biomedical data, with a focus on neuroscience. Gained expertise transforming complex research data into clear, accessible visuals. Eager to create innovative, data-driven solutions utilizing the latest advancements in computer vision and artificial intelligence. I'm actively seeking new opportunities to apply these skills professionally.

Languages

English
Native or Bilingual
French
Full Professional
Spanish
Native or Bilingual

Skills

  • Machine Vision: OpenCV
  • Scientific Illustration: BioRender
  • Data Science/ML: PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, SciPy, scikit-learn, numpy
  • Visualization Tools: VisiData, Plotly, seaborn, matplotlib, ggplot2
  • Programming Languages: Python, BASH, R, LaTeX, and SQL
  • Operating Systems: UNIX/Linux, macOS, Windows
  • Experimental Design: Setup/execute deep neural network training protocols

Education

Ph.D. - Neuroscience

McGill University, Montreal, Canada
02.2024
  • Dissertation: Cross-species exploration of Inhibitory Control: The Role of Netrin-1/DCC System in Corticolimbic Development
  • Relevant Coursework: Machine Learning for Biomedical Data, Advanced Statistics
  • GPA: 3.85/4.0

Bachelor of Arts - Honours in Psychology

Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
05.2016
  • Investigated amphetamine molecular mechanisms, enhancing expertise in systems biology and molecular genetics.
  • Graduated with distinction.

Work History

Production Services Technician

Sony Pictures Imageworks
Montreal, Quebec
09.2024 - 02.2025
  • Manage rendering farm resources to ensure artists' work is delivered on time while proactively resolving performance bottlenecks.
  • Secure, manipulate, and manage large-scale digital assets throughout the film production cycle, ensuring data integrity and accessibility for 215 artists.
  • Oversee production-based data management (backups, restores, archives, and file transfers), reducing downtime and safeguarding critical content.
  • Track and handle incoming/outgoing digital production data deliveries, coordinating with internal teams and external partners.

Deep Learning Data Engineering Consultant

Self-Employed
02.2024 - 09.2024
  • Optimized software resources by implementing machine vision
    technology for behavioral phenotyping in high-performance computing environments.
  • Optimized pre-processing pipelines to reduce data noise and improve input quality for machine learning models.
  • Executed deep learning protocols, refining neural network
    architectures to transform experimental videos into time-series
    motion-track tabular datasets.
  • Designed modeling and visualization tools for newly generated
    behavioral datasets, leveraging HPC for large-scale data processing.
  • Collaborated with academic clients to define clear project goals and deliverables.

Doctoral Researcher

Douglas Research Center
11.2018 - 12.2023
  • Performed high-dimensional data analysis, gaining expertise in parsing and analyzing diverse data formats.
  • Explored intricate signal transduction pathways mediated by the tumor-suppressor gene Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) and its interaction with the proteoglycan Netrin-1.
  • Calculated polygenic risk scores for multiple target human cohorts using PRS-on-Spark software and estimated effects sizes from publicly available GWAS data, including the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project.
  • Processed and analyzed diverse molecular data (DNA, RNA, and protein) from brain and blood tissues, ensuring accuracy and reliability of biological assays.
  • Developed software tools to streamline data visualization and accelerate research findings, improving overall efficiency in systems biology workflows.
  • Mentored junior researchers on study design, statistical analysis, and interpreting results.
  • Co-authored 9 peer-reviewed articles in psychiatric genetics field.

Overview

6
6
years of professional experience
3
3
Languages

Publications

  • Restrepo-Lozano JM., Miranda L., Schmidt MVS, Silveira PP & Flores C. (2024). Classification of social behavioral responses in stress and non-stress adult male mice with high precision. NPP-Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience. (Under review)
  • Batra A., Cuesta S., Alves M. B., Restrepo JM., Giroux M., Laureano D. P., ... & Silveira PP. (2023). Relationship between insulin and Netrin-1/DCC guidance cue pathway regulation in the prefrontal cortex of rodents exposed to prenatal dietary restriction. Journal of developmental origins of health and disease 14, no. 4 (2023): 501-507.
  • Restrepo-Lozano JM., Flores C., & Silveira PP. (2023). Novel functional genomics approaches bridging neuroscience and psychiatry. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, 3(3), pp.351-361.
  • Reynolds LM, Hernandez G, MacGowan D., Popescu C., …, Restrepo JM., ... & Flores C. (2023). Amphetamine disrupts dopamine axon growth in adolescence by a sex-specific mechanism in mice. Nature communications, 14(1), p.4035.
  • Restrepo JM, Pokhvisneva I, Wang Z, Patel S, Meaney MJ, Silveira PP, Flores C. (2022). Corticolimbic DCC gene co-expression networks as predictors of impulsivity in children. Molecular psychiatry, 27(6), pp.2742-2750.
  • Fallahi A, Hernandez G, Restrepo JM, Flores C. (2021). Effects of adolescent cannabinoid administration in mice on behavioural inhibition and susceptibility to stress during adulthood. McGill Science Undergraduate Research Journal, 16(1), pp.31-37.
  • Restrepo JM*, Cuesta S*, Popescu C, He S, Reynolds L, Israel S, Hernandez G, Rais R, Slusher B, Flores C. (2020). DCC-related developmental effects of abused- versus therapeuticlike amphetamine doses in adolescence. Addiction biology, 25(4), p.e12791.

* Contributed equally to this work

  • Torres-Berrio A, Nouel D, Cuesta S, Restrepo JM, Larochelle P, Nestler E, Flores C. (2020). MiR-218: A molecular switch and potential biomarker of susceptibility to stress. Molecular psychiatry, 25(5), pp.951-964.
  • Cuesta S, Restrepo JM, Silvestrin S., Nouel D., Torres-Berrío A., Reynolds LM, Arvanitogiannis A. and Flores C. (2018). Non-contingent exposure to amphetamine in adolescence recruits miR-218 to regulate Dcc expression in the VTA. Neuropsychopharmacology, 43(4), pp.900-911.
  • Hoops D, Reynolds LM, Restrepo JM, Flores C. (2018). Dopamine development in the orbital prefrontal cortex is protracted and sensitive to amphetamine in adolescence. Eneuro, 5(1).

Highlighted Projects

  • Synthetic Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Generation (01/2020): Collaborated in the design of a generative adversarial network capable of generating synthetic sets of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, based on training data from the International Genome Sample Resource.
  • Multiple Sequence Alignment of DCC protein (07/2020): Employed scripting and bioinformatics tools for protein sequence conservation analyses across species.
  • Gene-network intolerance calculator (06/2021): Developed a tool for calculating mutation intolerance probabilities in genetic networks using the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD).

Timeline

Production Services Technician - Sony Pictures Imageworks
09.2024 - 02.2025
Deep Learning Data Engineering Consultant - Self-Employed
02.2024 - 09.2024
Doctoral Researcher - Douglas Research Center
11.2018 - 12.2023
McGill University - Ph.D., Neuroscience
Concordia University - Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Psychology

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