Rachel Karchin, a Johns Hopkins professor of biomedical engineering, oncology, and computer science, has been named a fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) and was featured in a Nature article on inspiring women in science.
A leading professional organization for computational biology and bioinformatics, ISCB recognized Karchin for her pioneering contributions to computational cancer genomics, and for developing innovative algorithms and software to analyze genomic data and interpret its impact on cancer, the immune system, and tumor evolution.
Karchin and the other 2025 Fellows will be formally recognized during the ISMB/ECCB 2025 conference in Liverpool, July 20-24.
Karchin was also recently featured in the Nature article titled “Behind every great woman in science, there’s another great woman in science.” The article recognized six women scientists whose research and mentorship has encouraged others to pursue science careers. She was nominated by her former student Jean Fan, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
Karchin, who has been at Johns Hopkins since 2006, created CHASM, the first widely used statistical learning method to distinguish driver from passenger mutations, and led the development of OpenCRAVAT, a widely adopted open-source variant annotation toolkit. Her contributions extend to immuno-oncology, where her deep learning-based BigMHC model advances neoantigen prioritization for precision medicine. A leader in her field, she has played key roles in major cancer research initiatives, served on multiple advisory boards, and mentored the next generation of computational biologists.
Karchin holds multiple US patents and is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She earned her BS, MS, and PhD in computer science from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences at University of California, San Francisco.