Bar Jacobi

Hi! I’m Bar, a PhD student in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, working with Prof. Hannele Ruohola-Baker.

I’m broadly interested in using machine learning to understand biological systems and in building computational models that can lead to testable biological questions. Right now, I’m studying how healthy cells transition toward aged states using single-cell data and foundation models, working closely with experimental biologists and collaborators at the Institute for Protein Design.

Previously, I completed an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics at Tel Aviv University in Prof. Adi Stern’s lab, where I worked on viral evolution and predicting the role of new viral proteins. Before that, I studied Computer Science at the Technion and worked as a Production Engineer at Meta.