Tayab Soomro

Data Scientist Lead (Bioinformatics)

I lead data science at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Brandon Research and Development Centre. Breeders already collect the data; the bottleneck is turning it into a decision. I work with breeders on those decisions, and I build the tools that remove what is in the way.

My route in was through computer science rather than biology, and that has shaped what I work on. The problems I find interesting are engineering problems standing between a breeder and an answer they could already have.

Positions

2025 – present

Bioinformatics Data Scientist Lead

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Brandon RDC

I am principal investigator on independent projects in population genomics, trait discovery and digital agriculture. I provide data science support to the centre’s breeding and research programs, and I supervise students and interns.

2024 – 2025

Bioinformatics Consultant

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

GWAS in Vicia faba for rust resistance and heat tolerance; annotation of Aphanomyces genomes; integration of the Nanopore Mk1C for point-of-care detection of plant and animal pathogens.

2023

Senior Computational Biologist

FoodImprover Inc.

Association mapping across ~1,000 apple accessions and 5,000+ features, and a full-stack platform for exploring the results.

2022 – present

Bioinformatics Consultant

University of Saskatchewan

Workshops and training programs on Linux, HPC, Python and cloud computing for graduate students; HPC resource management.

2020 – 2023

Computational Biologist

NRGene Canada Inc.

Industry-grade Python tooling and AWS-based pipeline infrastructure for genomics at scale, in a 100+ person organization.

2017 – 2020

Student Research Assistant, then Student Bioinformatician

Links Lab, University of Saskatchewan · AAFC

MinION usability, real-time base-call visualization, and the first version of what became MICAS and then nanoCAS.

Education

2020 – 2022

M.Sc. in Agriculture

Dalhousie University · Institute of Comparative Genomics

Thesis: Exploring the genetics of aroma production in apples.

2015 – 2020

B.Sc. (Honours), Computer Science and Bioinformatics

University of Saskatchewan

Thesis: Kinome responses of Arabidopsis to clubroot (Plasmodiophora brassicae) infection.

Beyond the lab

2024

Canadian delegate, G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit, São Paulo, Brazil — drafting recommendations for policymakers ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

2024

Senior Data Analyst, Data For Good Regina — dashboards and regression analysis for the Regina Food Bank on donation sources, demographics and program effectiveness.

2023

Co-founder & CEO, PathoScan Technologies — portable in-field crop disease diagnostics.

2020

Judge, regional science fairs (through 2023).

Grants and awards

2025

AgTech investment from Front Row Ventures ($50,000).

2025

AgTech investment from the Ag-West Bio Startup Fund ($50,000).

2024

Winner, StartupTNT Summit X Finale ($100,000).

2024