Matthew Cowperthwaite is the Director of Research & Technology for St. David’s HealthCare Neurosciences. Since founding the research program in 2008, he has led development of research programs in computational and biomedical sciences, including cancer genomics, big-data analytics, image processing, and computational neuroscience. He is actively working on brain-tumor evolutionary genetics and biomarker discovery, as well as the development of predictive analytics for surgical-site infections following lumbar spine fusions. Matt also has significant interest in the applications for mobile and wearable health technologies, and is working with local companies in the Austin tech sector to identify strategic partnerships and begin clinical studies in this area.

Previously, Matt was the Biomedical Informatics Program Coordinator at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin. In this position, he led the Center’s efforts in the biomedical computing space, including leading grant funding strategies, submissions of multi-institutional grant proposals, developing and deploying software stacks for biomedical researchers, and providing consulting service to the TACC biomedical research community. Matt earned a Bachelor of Science in Plant Biology, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland in College Park, and a PhD from The University of Texas at Austin in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Under the supervision of Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers, his dissertation research focused on mathematical modeling, computer simulations, and bioinformatic studies of natural selection, population genetics, and artificially evolved functional RNA molecules.