Deshan Perera

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford Data Science, where I work with Professor Hunter Fraser at the Department of Biology, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University. My research focuses on identifying evolutionary signatures in cis-regulatory regions through the integration of inferences from machine learning models. The goal of my work is to advance our understanding of how regulatory elements evolve and shape phenotypic diversity.

My research focuses on developing scalable computational approaches for efficient inference of evolutionary signatures from genomic data. My interests span, accelerated computational solutions, genomics, machine learning for biology, statistical, and evolutionary biology.

I obtained my PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Calgary, where I was advised by Professor Quan Long on the development of high-performance computational tools for modeling within-host evolutionary dynamics in pathogen genomics and cancer. During my PhD, I received multiple recognitions, including the MDBC Nomination for the Chancellor’s Graduate Medal and Governor General’s Gold Medal (2025), the Graduate Faculty Council Scholarship (2024), the Gordon H. Dixon Award (2024), the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship (2021–2023) and the Eyes High International Scholarship (2021, 2024). Prior to my doctoral work, I earned a B.Sc. First-Class Honours degree specializing in Biology from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka where I was supervised by Professor Dinithi Peiris.