Joseph C. Ayoob, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

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Joseph Ayoob is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  The main thrust of Dr. Ayoob’s work has been to design and implement innovative research and training efforts for trainees at all levels.  This includes a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program¹ called Training and Experimentation in Computational Biology (TECBio) that has been funded since 2010 and a tailored research and enrichment CompBio Academy summer program for high school students started in 2011 that is a part of the UPMC Hillman Academy², for which he is also the Associate Director.  His educational efforts also extend to graduate students in the joint CMU–Pitt PhD program in Computational Biology (CPCB) and the Computational Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CoBB) MS program.  Together, Dr. Ayoob has pioneered innovative approaches and programs to teach laboratory-based³ and essential professional skills to these students to prepare them for success in their academic tenures and on the job market.

Dr. Ayoob additionally serves as the Faculty Fellow of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Mentoring.  His calling to the world of mentoring and mentor/mentee training was sparked by the exemplary mentors who helped shape his career path in such a positive way.  Dr. Ayoob has been recognized by the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) as a Mentor of the Month and as an NRMN Master Mentor and is also a Principal/Master Facilitator of both the Entering Mentoring Curriculum (mentor training) and Entering Research Curriculum (mentee training) from the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER).  He leads workshops in these curricula for faculty and trainees throughout the university and beyond.

¹Ayoob JC, Ramírez-Lugo JS. (2022) Ten simple rules for running a summer research program. PLoS Computational Biology.
²Ayoob JC, Boyce RD, Livshits S, Bruno TC, Delgoffe GM, Galson DL, Duncan AW, Atkinson JM, Oesterreich S, Evans S, Alikhani M, Baker TA, Pratt S, DeHaan KJ, Chen Y, Boone DN. (2022) Getting to YES: The Evolution of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hillman Cancer Center Youth Enjoy Science (YES) Academy. J STEM Outreach.
³Ayoob JC, Kangas JD. (2020) 10 simple rules for teaching wet-lab experimentation to computational biology students, i.e., turning computer mice into lab rats. PLoS Computational Biology.