SABER HQ
Friendly notes on what I’m building, reading, and figuring out.
Built by Hugov0.150.0 Year2025
Podcast
I talk through new research papers in AI and biology, the ones shaping how we think about future. This is where I unpack the science I’m reading — new papers, big breakthroughs, and the occasional headline worth a second look. It’s half lab notebook, half conversation with an AI sidekick.
Newsletter
Like Morning Brew, but for people who read preprints for fun! Each week I break down the biggest AI × Bio ideas into quick, snackable updates you can read over coffee. It’s the stuff I’d be sending friends and labmates anyway — just wrapped up in one weekly note.
Why Autoencoders are so Effective?
Explore why autoencoders shine; this post pairs plain-language basics with demos, figures, and a walkthrough video.
ntEmbd for sequence embeddings
ntEmbd turns nucleotide sequences into vector embeddings; explore training setup, benchmarks, and GitHub repo links.
NanoSim simulates ONT sequencing data
Trans-NanoSim captures nanopore transcript quirks; learn how benchmarks and simulations accelerate RNA tooling workflows.
About me
My name is Saber. I’m a Research Scientist with 12+ years of experience in genomics, data science, and machine learning. I earned my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where I was advised by Prof. Dr. Inanc Birol, working at the Bioinformatics Technology Lab. During my Ph.D., I broadly worked on developing computational tools and software solutions for next-generation sequencing technologies. My doctoral dissertation (see here) was focused on utilizing machine learning in transcriptome analysis. I am passionate about contributing to the understanding, controlling, and training of foundation models for biology. Before starting at UBC, I received my M.Sc. in Bioinformatics from METU, where I was advised by Dr. Hilal Kazan and Dr. Yesim Aydin Son. My B.Sc. was in Information Technology Engineering.
Recent news
- Sep 2025— Launched this website. It uses Hugo with the Book Theme.
- Jul 2025— Joined Genentech as a Computational Scientist.
- Jun 2025— Attended ICML in Vancouver.
- Dec 2024— Attended NeurIPS in Vancouver.
- Jul 2024— Defended my PhD dissertation and graduated from UBC.
- Jun 2024— The LRGASP research is published in Nature Methods.
- May 2024— ntEmbd is available on BioRxiv.
- Jun 2023— Presented ntEmbd at the ISMB/ECCB conference in Lyon, France.
- May 2023— RNA‑Bloom2 is published in Nature Communications.
- Mar 2023— Meta‑NanoSim is published in GigaScience.