Dr. Matt Thomson

Biography

Matt Thomson is a Professor of Computational Biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and an investigator at the Heritage Medical Research Institute. He received his B.A. from Harvard University in 2001 and earned his Ph.D. in 2011. Thomson has a rich academic history including serving as a Visiting Associate at Caltech in 2016 and as an Assistant Professor from 2017 until 2024, when he became a full Professor. In 2018, he also began his role as an investigator at HMRI. His research focuses on single-cell genomics and employs quantitative experimental modeling approaches to exert control over cellular differentiation. His lab, the Thomson Lab, strategically develops mathematical models of cellular regulatory networks that can generate a vast diversity of cell types. Recently, he has engineered an all-optical differentiation system aimed at pulsed neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells and created new computational tools to analyze cell state trajectories using single-cell RNA-Sequencing data. His research integrates mathematical modeling, machine learning, and statistical analyses of high-throughput gene expression data to further understanding in biological engineering.

Research Interests

Experience