Alexander “Xander” Krohannon

Alexander “Xander” Krohannon, M.S., is a technical advisor who plays an integral part of our Intellectual Property Department and Patent Practice Group.  Xander is presently a Ph.D. candidate in bioinformatics at the Janga Lab of Genomics and Systems Biology.  His research over the last 10 years has focused on the execution next generation sequencing (NGS), including the use of machine learning algorithms, deep learning, and other high-performance computing in utilizing bioinformatics tools to perform comprehensive research.  Xander’s current research focuses on the application of deep learning in NGS and other high throughput methods to understand cellular methods of RNA regulation.  His previous work includes the development of a CRISPR-Cas13 sgRNA designer.  However, Xander has experience working with a variety of bioinformatics and next generation sequencing tools, including CRISPR, GC-MS, HPLC-MS, bedtools, fastqc, fastx, hisat2, macs2, and tophat.

Xander has been a graduate student researcher for the last 5 years.  As a part of his research, he has performed research experimentation through the use of several NGS tools/sets (including microarray RNA-, ChIP-, ATAC-, and DNA-Sequencing data sets) as well as a collection of bioinformatic-related methodologies.  Xander has developed and enhanced machine and deep learning algorithms, conducted comprehensive quality control checks on novel equipment, and performed laboratory maintenance procedures on software development platforms, such as GitHub. 

Xander started his career as a biochemist where he developed methods to study drug-protein interactions, their effects, and their pharmacokinetic profiles. Xander’s experience also includes researching and assessing biological samples to support risk assessment and the evaluation of current and emerging techniques, after the retrieval, storage, and preparation of several chemical agents.

He is actively involved in teaching the fundamentals of biomedical informatics and is faculty advisor for the Biomedical Informatics and Luddy Journal Clubs at Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering in Indiana.

Xander received a master’s degree in bioinformatics from Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis and a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.