About: With a computer science background, I conducted research in methodology development for large-scale data modeling and integration, with application to bioinformatics and computational biology. To this end I acquired expertise in tool assessment, mathematical modelling and requirement definition as foundations for tool development for various data science applications, with particular focus on genomic and genetic data.
Objective I seek to take this expertise to the next level by transferring my skills to new areas. I am looking for solving problems that are highly analytical, requiring good communication and people skills. I am interested in scientific and innovation challenges with application to business.
Education and Training
2009 – 2014 – PhD
in Computer Science
- Laboratory of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Prof. Bernard M.E. Moret
- Competences from courses
- 2015
- – DNA methylation and methylome analysis with NGS
- 2014
- – Introduction to classification – basics of predictive modeling (“classifier construction”) (SIB)
- – Genetic diseases – GWA and exome sequencing Studies (SIB)
- 2013
- – Speak with impact (Staff Training Service EPFL)
- – Etre acteur et proactif pour passer du problème à la solution (Staff Training Service EPFL)
- – Comprendre et gerer les differentes personnalites (Staff Training Service EPFL)
- 2012
- – Statistical analysis of genetic data (Curriculum EPFL)
- – Principles of finance (Curriculum EPFL)
- Entrepreneurship and continuing education workshops
- 2015
- – myDNA – Business concept writing and presentation at SICTIC
- – myDNA – Top 25 (/238) in the Venture.ch business concept competition
- 2013
- – Fix the leaky pipeline – a career building program for women in science – coaching group
- through the equal opportunities office EPFL
- 2012
- – How to rebuild a country – Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake McKinsey & Company,
- case study workshop
- 2010
- – workshop for Business Plan writing: 2nd prize IVE – Institute for Value Based
- Enterprise.
- 2007
- – certified in elements of quality management – Siemens VDO & UPT Romania
2004 – 2009 – BSc in Computer Science
- UPT (Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Romania)
- Dipl. Eng. in Computer Science
Certificates
2015 – Barista skills foundations (SCAE certified) 
2015 – Barista skills intermediate (Mokaflor attestation)
2007 – Elements of quality management – Siemens VDO & UPT Romania
Professional experience
2016 Sept. – Present – Business Consultant 
- Regulatory Affairs, IDMP and Data integration related operations.
2015 Oct. – 2016 Aug. – Sr. Associate Consultant
- Assessment and strategic roadmapping of R&D resources in the frame of the IDentification of Medicinal Product (IDMP) regulatory requirement.Main responsibilities:
– Prepare and conduct client interview sessions, analyze findings and generate final statistics
– Prepare and present deliverables for clients
– Assist in the product line development of HighPoint Solutions
– Facilitate the onboarding process of the new employees for R&D
– Coordinate procedure and information harmonization across R&D projects
2009 – 2015 – Researcher in Data Science for Whole Genome Comparison
- Research Focus on whole genome comparative studies, namely how to break down the genomes into significant abstract units for comparison purposes. The challenges reside in a careful analytical study of the available biological resources and the technological limitations that the conceptualization of such blocks depends on.
- The formal concept offers a structured, rigorous definition. It provides a robust foundation for comparing syntenic structures in an evolutionary context, thus making possible quantitative and qualitative block based comparative studies. Abstract.
- Publication:
- Ghiurcuta, C.G., and Moret, B.M.E., Evaluating synteny for improved comparative studies, Proc. 22nd Symp. on Intelligent Systems for Mol. Bio. ISMB’14.
- Affiliation to Academic Networks:
- Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology (SystemsX) – as part of the interdisciplinary PhD network
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB)
- Teaching Duties:
- Fall 2012 – Advanced Algorithms – Guest Lecturer on average case analysis of randomized algorithms (rand quicksort, tail bounds, coin flipping)
- Fall 2011 – Advanced Algorithms
- Spring 2011 – Computational Molecular Biology
- Fall 2010 – Advanced Algorithms
2009 – Research Assistant (5 months)
- ETHZ (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich)
- Computer Vision Laboratory, Prof. Gabor Szekely
- I successfully developed and tested a stochastic model for the mechanism of nuclear migration in S. Cerevisiae (budding yeast). The project offered valuable cooperation opportunities for both the biological insight and the development of the visualization module.
2008 – 2009 – Software Quality Engineer ( 50% part time, 5 months)
- Continental Automotive Romania
- R&D Department, Chassis & Passive Safety Team
- As a software quality engineer my responsibilities involved tracking and managing international projects, performing milestone and code reviews according to the internal process web, respectively with technical (SPICE,7 MISRA), process improvement (CMMI) and quality management standards (ISO 9000 family).
2007 – Jr Software Developer (summer internship, 1 month) 
- Siemens VDO Romania
- R&D Department, Commercial Vehicles and After Market Team
- As a junior software developer I managed to fix parts of a software module responsible for data acquisition and transmission from the temperature controller of the vehicle.
Presentations, Conferences & Workshops
- Conferences and Workshops (9)
- 2014
-
- – International Society for Computational Biology (ISMB) Boston, MA, USA.
- – Genetic Diseases – genome-wide association and exome sequencing studies (CUSO SIB)
- – Alphy / PhyloSIB Swiss-French meeting on Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Genomics.
- 2013
- – 54th Annual Short Course on Medical and Experimental Mammalian Genetics, The Jackson Lab (Bar Harbor, ME). Scholarship awarded for participation costs.
- – Workshop on Statistical Genomics and Data Integration for Personalized Medicine, Ascona, Switzerland.
- 2012
- – Symposium of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE), Dublin Ireland.
- 2011
- – Scientific research plan writing, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Chandolin, Switzerland.
- – [BC]2 Conference Basel, Switzerland.
- 2010
- – Quantitative imaging and modeling of biological processes, NBIC/SIB Summer School Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- Presentations (7)
-
- 2015
- 2014
- – International Society for Computational Biology (ISMB) Boston, MA, USA. Travel award granted by NSF USA (84/202 awards & >1300 participants). Evaluating synteny for improved comparative studies, oral presentation in proceedings.
- – ALPHY/PhyloSIB Swiss-French meeting on Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Genomics. Oral presentation.
- 2013
- – 54th Annual Short Course on Medical and Experimental Mammalian Genetics, The Jackson Lab (Bar Harbor, ME). Scholarship awarded for participation costs. Poster presentation.
- – Workshop on Statistical Genomics and Data Integration for Personalized Medicine, Ascona, Switzerland. Poster presentation.
- 2012
- 2011 – [BC]2 Conference Basel, Switzerland. Poster presentation.