About
Molecular biology, computational tools, and an assortment of side projects.
Biology · Software · Systems
Hi, I’m Dalton.
I study molecular biology at Brigham Young University and build computational tools for exploring biological questions.
My work lives at the intersection of bacteriophage genomics, scientific software, and the systems that make research possible. I enjoy taking complex biological questions and building clean, reproducible tools to explore them.
Connecting biology and computation
I’m fascinated by bacteriophages—the viruses that infect bacteria—and what comparative genomics can reveal about their evolutionary adaptations. Working with phages bridges wet-lab microbiology (culturing hosts, running plaque and spot assays) with computational biology (assembling and annotating genomes, comparing gene architectures, and investigating synteny).
To me, computational biology is more than running tools quickly. It’s about making analyses clear and reproducible. When an experiment yields an unexpected insight, anyone should be able to inspect what went into it: which decisions shaped the pipeline, which parameters were chosen, and how the results can be verified independently.
I enjoy the space between a biological question and a working tool: turning an idea into an analysis, a visualization, or a workflow someone can actually use and build upon.
What I’m building
Reproducible publishing
Papertrail
A résumé-as-code template built with Quarto and Typst. It stores career history in modular YAML files and compiles both a one-page résumé and a full academic CV with sub-second compilation—without LaTeX dependencies.
Genomics & workflows
Genomic analysis tooling
Workflows and visualization tools for bacteriophage comparative genomics and post-annotation analysis.
I focus on making biological relationships easier to investigate—turning raw sequence files and annotation outputs into clear visual representations that prompt useful questions.
Infrastructure & experimentation
A homelab that keeps growing
I build and maintain a quiet, self-hosted Linux environment running Proxmox VE, virtual machines, and Docker containers. It serves as an ongoing sandbox for experimenting with networking, containerization, local backups, and infrastructure as code.
It’s where “I wonder if I could…” turns into a weekend project—and where breaking things safely builds real systems intuition.
Skills & tools
These are the technical areas I work in and the tools I rely on across research, software development, and infrastructure.
Bioinformatics & genomics
- Bacteriophage genome annotation & analysis
- Comparative genomics and synteny
- Single-cell transcriptomics & Perturb-seq analysis
- Biological data visualization
- Reproducible workflow pipelines
Programming & data analysis
- Python and R for scientific analysis
- Command-line tools, Bash, and POSIX scripting
- Data processing with pandas, tidyverse, and SQL
- Statistical visualization with ggplot2
- Scientific publishing with Quarto and Typst
Research software & reproducibility
- Snakemake declarative workflow development
- Conda environment management and isolation
- Git version control and GitHub workflows
- GitHub Actions CI/CD automation
- Literate programming and documentation
Systems & infrastructure
- Linux server administration (Debian & Ubuntu)
- Proxmox VE hypervisor and virtualization
- Docker, Docker Compose, and container networking
- DNS, reverse proxies, and local VPNs
- Hardware repurposing and configuration
What I’m learning next
I am actively strengthening the mathematical and computational foundations behind my work, particularly statistics, probability, linear algebra, and machine learning models in biology.
I’m also exploring:
- Python package design, automated testing, and release engineering
- R package and Bioconductor development workflows
- Infrastructure as Code with Ansible and lightweight Kubernetes (k3s)
- Mathematical modeling and systems biology
- Local open-weights model inference on dedicated hardware
I believe in learning by building: identifying a problem worth solving, crafting a first working implementation, and refining it as understanding deepens.
Beyond the technical side
Not everything I do belongs in a terminal.
I enjoy reading and writing poetry, listening to good music, watching anime, and getting immersed in games. I also like hands-on electronics and repurposing older hardware—projects where there is something physical to solder, cable, or tinker with alongside the code.
This site brings those pieces together: half research notebook and project portfolio, and half poetry notebook with room for whatever catches my curiosity.