Dr. Mark Borodovsky stands as a preeminent figure in computational genomics and bioinformatics with a distinguished career spanning four decades. He currently holds the prestigious position of Regents' Professor in the Joint Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University while directing the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics at Georgia Tech. His professional journey began at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1985 before establishing a bioinformatics laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology in 1990. Dr. Borodovsky has held significant leadership roles including Founder of Georgia Tech's graduate Program in Bioinformatics and Chair of the Department of Bioinformatics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology from 2012 to 2022. His dual institutional appointments and advisory role at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscore his position as a bridge between academic research and public health applications.
Dr. Borodovsky pioneered the application of inhomogeneous Markov chain models for protein-coding region identification in 1986, establishing a foundational methodology that became standard in gene prediction algorithms. His development of the GeneMark software suite in 1993 represented a landmark achievement in computational genomics, serving as the critical annotation tool for the first completely sequenced genomes of Haemophilus influenzae and Methanococcus jannaschii. His research group continues to advance the field through innovative machine learning algorithms for analyzing DNA, RNA, and protein sequences with particular emphasis on predicting protein-coding genes and regulatory elements in genomic DNA. The probabilistic modeling framework that characterizes his work has proven essential for addressing the inherent stochasticity in biological sequence evolution across viral, prokaryotic, eukaryotic, and metagenomic contexts. These contributions have fundamentally shaped modern approaches to genome annotation and biological sequence analysis worldwide.
As a founding member of Georgia Tech's bioinformatics community, Dr. Borodovsky has organized eleven International Conferences in Bioinformatics at the institution since 1997, creating vital forums for scientific exchange and collaboration. His leadership extends to the International Society for Computational Biology where he serves on the Educational Committee and was honored with election as an ISCB Fellow in 2020 for his exceptional contributions to the field. Currently, his research focuses on developing sophisticated machine learning algorithms to extract meaningful insights from the burgeoning volume of biological and medical OMICS data. Through his mentorship of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, Dr. Borodovsky continues to cultivate the next generation of computational biologists who are advancing the frontiers of genomic medicine and precision healthcare. His enduring commitment to methodological innovation ensures that his laboratory remains at the vanguard of computational approaches to deciphering the complexities of biological systems.
