About Me
I’m Hew, a PhD student in the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford supervised by Prof. Charlotte Deane MBE (OPIG). I currently research deep learning models for protein folding using generative approaches such as Flow Matching and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to do so.
I’m a Biochemist by background with an integrated Masters (1st class) from the University of Sheffield with a focus on immunology (specifically macrophage changes with age). After publishing my dissertation and getting some initial data analysis and Bioinformatics experience (RNAseq analysis) I moved to industry for 2 years where I led the development of machine learning software for the directed evolution of proteins. Now, alongside my PhD I am also a self-employed consultant working with biotech companies to build new theoretic models of biology for machine learning - currently contracted with Isomerase.
I’m in my official 1st year of my DPhil which is my 2nd year under the 4 year Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP (BBSRC funded). In this programme the first year consists of training and 3-month rotation projects. I’ve rotated at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology under Prof. Mark Coles, Prof. Christopher Buckley and Dame Molly Stevens where I explored organoid models of inflammation in the lab and mathematical models to describe these. My 2nd rotation was with Prof. Charlotte Deane MBE at the Oxford Protein Informatics Group (OPIG) where I developed an end-to-end python package for machine learning prediction of antibody thermostability from MD simulations.
My research experience and interests are diverse but can be loosely grouped into machine learning and simulation intelligence with the aim of resolving autoimmune and chronic inflammatory conditions. I self-taught a lot of mathematics and machine learning and so one aspect of this website is a blog-style approach to teaching topics in these fields in ways that helped me to understand them. I also enjoy discussing recent research and so maintaining this website gives me a push to keep up to date.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a personal website without some element of self-advertisement and as I’m at the beginning of my career so I’m always looking for opportunities like internships, studying abroad, fellowships and more consultancy work! You can find my CV here and links to my LinkedIn and Github as well as my research projects.
If you have any questions, just stumbled onto my website, or also have a burning interest for machine learning and mathematics in biology then reach out!