Step into the world where algorithms meet biology! Hosts Lorena Pantano and Alex Bartlett, two dynamic women in science, unravel the complexities and curiosities of computational biology. Each episode, they break down complicated analyses, demystify big data approaches, and share real-world stories from their own bioinformatics research adventures. Whether you’re a seasoned bioinformatician or just bio-curious, Alex and Lorena's engaging banter, expert interviews, and practical tips will guide you through the fascinating process of turning raw biological data into meaningful scientific discoveries. Join them as they make computation in the life sciences accessible—and even a little bit fun!
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A Comp-bio holiday calendar: 12 tools and tips to make this holiday season a fantastic one!
As our first season comes to an end, we would like to wish all of our listeners a very happy holiday season. But wait! We also have some presents for our listeners. In this episode of “A Coffee with Compbio”, Lorena Pantano and Alex Bartlett present 12 cool things in bioinformatics.
From a tool that will rescue you out of Python dependency hell to the one that can generate a functional genome, they discuss some really innovative tools that have been rolled out this year. Tune in to listen to these 12 tools and how you might use them!
And find out about the exciting announcement we have at the end!
Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions using this form 📁: https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7 (https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7)
Thanks to Amulya Shastry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amulya-shastry/)for editing and management support.
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/)
If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Subscribe here: https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1 (https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1)
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
11 Nov 2025
Collaboration Survival Guide for CompBio
What really happens when a wet lab scientist and a computational biologist sit down to plan an experiment? Spoiler: it's not always smooth sailing. In this episode of 'A Coffee with Compbio,' Lorena Pantano and Alex Bartlett chat with Amolya about the real talk nobody tells you about scientific collaborations.
They break down the three make-or-break moments of any project: that first meeting where you're figuring out if single-cell sequencing on mouse eyes is actually the move (hint: maybe start simpler), the data processing stage where quality issues rear their ugly head, and those uncomfortable conversations when results don't pan out.
What you'll learn:
How to redirect overambitious project plans without shutting people down
Smart ways to communicate technology limitations early
What to say when pilot data quality is... not great
Why being adaptable beats being rigid every single time
If you want to level up your collaboration game and avoid common pitfalls, grab your coffee and tune in.
Thanks to Amulya Shastry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amulya-shastry/)for editing and management support.
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/)
If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Subscribe here:https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1 (https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1)
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
14 Oct 2025
A coffee with Saranya Canchi - Fail, learn, repeat, the bioinformatics way!
In this episode of A Coffee with Comp Bio, hosts Alex Bartlett and Lorena Pantano sit down with Saranya Canchi, a computational biologist specializing in neuroscience. Together, they explore how to thrive as a self-directed learner in bioinformatics—tackling early challenges, learning through projects, and building problem-solving resilience. Saranya shares her journey as a self-taught bioinformatician, highlighting the importance of mastering the field’s unique language and embracing failure as part of growth. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to strengthen your learning approach, this conversation offers practical insights and inspiration for your bioinformatics journey.
https://s-canchi.github.io/ (https://s-canchi.github.io/)
Thanks to Amulya Shastry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amulya-shastry/)for editing and management support.
Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions using this form 📁: https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7 (https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7)
Please get in touch if you or your business would like to help support this podcast.
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/)
If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Subscribe here: https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1 (https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1)
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
23 Sept 2025
(Dry) Lab Notebooks: The Importance of Recordkeeping in CompBio
Grab your coffee and join us for another episode of Coffee with CompBio!
This time, we kick things off with Amulya, a PhD student at Boston University and co-chair of Boston Women in Bioinformatics, who introduces us to llmr — a new Tidyverse-friendly tool for connecting with LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and more. Think structured outputs, agent workflows, and even building your own chatbot in R.
Then we sit down with Lina Faller, a veteran in bioinformatics with nearly two decades of experience bridging software engineering, research, and pharma. Lena shares why she started blogging about sustainable data systems, leadership in tech, and the very human side of computational biology. We dive into one of her favorite topics: why computational biologists should keep lab notebooks (yes, even if your “lab” is just a laptop). From reproducibility to institutional memory to the art of “forensic bioinformatics,” Lena brings stories and advice that will be useful to anyone working with data.
If you’ve ever forgotten what you coded six months ago (we’ve all been there), or wondered how AI might fit into documentation and knowledge-sharing, this episode is for you.
Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions using this form 📁: https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7 (https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7)
https://ellmer.tidyverse.org/articles/ellmer.html (https://ellmer.tidyverse.org/articles/ellmer.html)
https://lfaller.github.io/ (https://lfaller.github.io/)
Thanks to Amulya Shastry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amulya-shastry/)for editing and management support.
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/)
If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Subscribe here: https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1 (https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1)
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
2 Sept 2025
The Spatial Transcriptomics Toolkit: Memory, Clustering, and Deconvolution
In this episode, Alex and Lorena tackle the computational challenges of spatial transcriptomics. Learn how BPCells can help you work with millions of cells without needing terabytes of RAM, discover how Banksy's neighborhood-aware clustering reveals tissue architecture, and explore RCTD's approach to cell type deconvolution in spatially-resolved data. Plus, Lorena reviews Positron, the new R-friendly IDE that's catching attention in the bioinformatics community.
https://github.com/bnprks/BPCells (https://github.com/bnprks/BPCells)
https://github.com/prabhakarlab/Banksy (https://github.com/prabhakarlab/Banksy)
https://github.com/dmcable/spacexr (https://github.com/dmcable/spacexr)
https://github.com/bcbio/spatial-reports (https://github.com/bcbio/spatial-reports)
https://github.com/seandavi/awesome-single-cell (https://github.com/seandavi/awesome-single-cell)
https://positron.posit.co/ (https://positron.posit.co/)
Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions using this form 📁: https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7 (https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7)
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/)
Thanks to Amulya Shastry for editing and management support.
If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Subscribe here: https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1 (https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1)
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
12 Aug 2025
A coffee with Katie Hughes - First hand experience on transitioning to a Product Manager role
Alex Barlett and Lorena Pantano welcome Katie Hughes, their first guest, to discuss her career transition from bioinformatics to product management. Katie shares her journey from studying genetics, working in wet labs, and discovering a passion for bioinformatics, to eventually earning a master's degree in the field. She details her experience at various biotech companies, including Harvard Medical School, Moderna, Sonata Therapeutics, and Generate Biomedicines. Katie emphasizes the importance of curiosity, adaptability, and soft skills in making career transitions. She explains what a product manager does, differentiates it from similar roles, and outlines the skills and experiences that helped her succeed. The discussion also covers the day-to-day responsibilities of a product manager, the collaborative nature of the role, and advice for those interested in making a similar career shift.
Marty Cagan (https://www.svpg.com/books/inspired-how-to-create-tech-products-customers-love-2nd-edition/)
How I AI podcast (https://youtube.com/@howiaipodcast?si=CYby_n5KrKUKqo2u)
Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions using this form 📁: https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7 (https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7)
Please get in touch if you or your business would like to help support this podcast.
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
29 Jul 2025
R You Doing It Right? Modern Best Practices in R
Alex and I dig into the tricks and tips that'll actually make your R code work better. We're talking about ditching those old habits we all picked up and switching to code that works better in 2025. We cover over 10 solid habits that'll seriously boost your R game - everything from how you're reading and storing files, making plots that are publish-ready, theming, data manipulation, and setting up environments so your code works when you come back to it later. If you want to up your R skills, this one's got practical stuff you can start using right away.
Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions using this form: https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7 (https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7)
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/)
If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Subscribe here: https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1 (https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1)
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
10 Jul 2025
Fast, Private, and Publish-Ready Spatial Transcriptomics App (Without Losing Your Mind)
In this episode, we journey through the real-life challenges of building interactive single cell spatial data visualizations for large projects. Lorena shares her recent adventure turning mountains of data into a web app using tools like Python, R, and the (tricky-to-pronounce) single-cell viewer Vitessce. She discusses the hurdles of image cropping, memory limits, Python-R crossovers, and why “just putting it online” isn’t as easy as it sounds—especially when it comes to privacy, deployment, and avoiding surprise cloud bills.If you’ve ever had a collaborator say, “Can you just build me an app I can play with?”, this episode is for you.
In the “Quick Sips” segment, Alex and Lorena share tips on automating code linting with GitHub Actions. Finally, in our “Brewing Up Answers” segment, we chat about managing people in academia vs. industry, and why it’s a very different ballgame on each side of the fence.
Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions using this form: https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7 (https://forms.gle/ncwo6HZeN4uA9gPg7)
Also, we are looking for sponsors! Please get in touch if you or your business would like to help support this podcast .
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpantano/) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bartlett-926b32109/)
If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Subscribe here: https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1 (https://podcast.ausha.co/a-coffee-with-compbio?s=1)
Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy (https://ausha.co/privacy-policy) for more information.
26 Jun 2025
R Markdown: Because RNA-seq Code Shouldn't Be Wild-Type
Hosts Alex Bartlett and Lorena Pantano explore how parameterized R Markdown code templates revolutionize their group's bioinformatics practices for RNA-seq projects, improving reproducibility and collaboration.
10 Jun 2025
The Thousand-Dollar Alignment
Podcast hosts Lorena Pantano and Alex Bartlett discuss methylation data challenges, emphasizing clear communication and bioinformatics-aware experimental design for project success, while also exploring software environment management and project organization.
27 May 2025
Nine Samples and Zero Cells: A Week in the Life of Single-Cell Analysis
Hosts ALEXANDRA BARTLETT and LORENA PANTANO explore the challenges of single-cell RNA-seq data processing, revealing lessons in data handling, pipeline reproducibility, and client communication.
27 May 2025
About Us
Hosts Lorena and Alex introduce themselves, discuss their career paths into computational biology, and preview the topics they plan to cover in future podcast episodes.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
7 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
8 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
34
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
81
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Guest appearances
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Questions about A Coffee with CompBio
Who hosts A Coffee with CompBio?
Lorena Pantano and Alex Bartlett host the show. Published by Lorena Pantano.
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The show publishes weekly, based on its RSS feed.
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