Nicholas Pratt

University at Buffalo

Hi - I am an undergraduate researcher studying Computational Biology in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. At UB, I work in the Scalable Computing Research (SCoRe) group led by Jaroslaw Zola. My primary research interest is in formalizing the genotype-to-phenotype map using machine learning and statistical modeling methodologies. I am particularly interested in applications to understanding fundamental biomolecular processes downstream of genomics, quantitative plant breeding, and advancing concepts in theoretical biology.

Outside of my professional life I love to be outdoors gardening, in my garden I grow mostly perennial fruits like currents and elderberries. I also lead an effort to restore a former dump site near my house to its native habitat by propagating and planting native species. I love to hike where my goal is to reach the highest point of all 50 states, as of March 2026, my standing is 10/50. I also interested in Central and Eastern European history and current geopolitics which I study both as a hobby and at university where I studied abroad in Czechia as a U.S. Department of Defense Gilman Scholar.

Research

My current research is focused on ways to quantify quality of genomic data for training genome foundation models using information theory metrics and surrogate models. Previously I have completed projects in the SCoRe group to retrain open-source machine learning model Remora, to detect 8-oxo-guanine during the basecalling stage of nanopore sequencing. For this work I was awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship.

I have also worked on several plant genomics projects. In Victor Albert’s lab in the University at Buffalo Department of Biological Sciences, I worked on genome assembly, annotation, and analysis related to the convergent evolution of carnivory in the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea. I also completed a research program through the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems with Michael Gore and Kelly Robbins at Cornell University, where I built statistical modeling pipelines to analyze data from a slac1 gene knockout experiment in maize, with the goal of better understanding drought-tolerance-related traits.

Contact

Nicholas Bane Pratt

Undergraduate Researcher

University at Buffalo

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Davis Hall

Buffalo, NY, 14260-2500

Email: nbpratt [at] buffalo.edu