Melia E. Bonomo

Melia is a theoretical physicist, artist, and teacher. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Rice University.

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About Me

Rice University, Houston TX

NIH National Library of Medicine Postdoctoral Fellow in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (May 2021 to Present)
Ph.D. in Applied Physics (August 2015 to December 2020)
M.S. in Applied Physics (May 2018)
University Certificate in Teaching & Learning
Instructor of Record (Academic Year 2019-2020)
Graduate Teaching Fellow (Academic Years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021)

Dickinson College, Carlisle PA

B.S. in Physics with Honors, Magna Cum Laude (May 2013)
Minor in Italian Studies

SITE Program, Lombardy Italy

Teaching Assistant (Academic Years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015)

Stony Brook University, Stony Brook NY

Summer Research Advisor in the Laser Teaching Center (2013 and 2014)

Portrait photo credit: Hussain Hijazi Photography

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Physics

Melia does theoretical research in applied physics to investigate modular structure and function in biology, encompassing topics in immunology and cognition. In prior work, she researched topics in optics and thermodynamics.

What is modularity?

A module refers to an individual unit that can be combined with other individual units to form a more complex structure. Modularity defines how independent each of these individual units are. The extent to which modularity is beneficial or disadvantageous depends on the complexity and timescale of the activities being carried out.

Writing

Policy Brief

M.W. Deem, M.E. Bonomo, and K.R.W. Matthews, “Improving the Effectiveness of the Annual Flu Vaccine,” Policy brief no. 10.29.18. Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Houston, Texas.

Research Articles

M. E. Bonomo, A. K. Brandt, J. T. Frazier, C. Karmonik “Music to My Ears: Neural modularity and flexibility differ in response to real-world music stimuli,” IBRO Neuroscience Reports, 2022.

M. E. Bonomo, R. Y. Kim, M. W. Deem, “Modular epitope binding predicts influenza quasispecies dominance and vaccine effectiveness: Application to 2018/19 season,” Vaccine, 37(24): 3154-3158, 2019.

M. E. Bonomo and M. W. Deem, “Reply to Xu and Ye: On the sufficiency of the pEpitope method,” Clinical Infectious Diseases, 68(2): 347, 2019.

M. E. Bonomo and M. W. Deem, “Predicting influenza H3N2 vaccine efficacy from evolution of the dominant epitope,” Clinical Infectious Diseases, 67(7): 1129-1131, 2018.

Review Article

M. E. Bonomo and M. W. Deem, “The physicist’s guide to one of biotechnology’s hottest new topics: CRISPR-Cas,” Physical Biology, 15 041002, 2018.

Book Chapter

M. E. Bonomo and M. W. Deem, “How the other half lives: CRISPR-Cas’s influence on bacteriophages,” in Evolutionary biology: Self, non-self evolution, species and complex traits; evolution, methods and concepts edited by Pierre Pontarotti, Springer Nature, 2017.