RESUME
Overview
​​
I am currently a Senior AI Engineer at DN Media Group. Before that, I worked with Oslo University Hospital, developing pipelines to predict clinical outcomes from immunological data using machine learning models. I also worked for two years as a software developer at a federated learning company, Resonyx. There, I honed my programming skills by building edge and cloud infrastructures and developing analysis to process live audio signals. Prior to 2021, I was a full-time researcher, using numerical simulations and machine learning models to study biological systems relevant to drug development.
My passion is gathering actionable insights from real-world data and visualizing them in meaningful, stakeholder-friendly ways. My recent senior positions have also nurtured an interest in team and project management, where my directness and calmness are valuable assets.
Overall, my areas of interest data science, artificial intelligence/machine learning, bioinformatics and teaching. I am an expert in Python and have good knowledge of machine learning/artificial intelligence, SQL databases, AWS, Docker, and Apache Airflow. Spanish is my native language, and I am proficient in English and Italian. I also have good communication skills (B2) in Norwegian.
-
DN Media Group. Oslo, Norway
Senior AI Engineer
Jan 2025 - Present
-
Developed and deployed AI products using Gemini, Claude, and Vertex AI, integrating with DBT, BigQuery, and cloud-based solutions.
-
Built and maintained Streamlit and Jupyter-based tools, enabling interactive data exploration and AI-driven applications.
-
Contributed to Python package deployment and managed GCP infrastructure with Terraform, ensuring scalable and automated workflows.
-
Worked on data modeling, workflow automation, and cloud-based application debugging, improving efficiency and reliability.
-
DN Media Group is a leading Norwegian media company, leveraging AI and data-driven solutions to enhance journalism, content delivery, and business intelligence.
-
Oslo University Hospital - CellFiT. Oslo, Norway
Senior data scientist (consultant)
May 2023 - Dec 2024
-
Designed and implemented a Python web application to process immunological data to optimize personalized cancer treatments.
-
Developed an automatic pipeline to process and analyze proteomics (cytometry) data.
-
Implemented front-end (Streamlit, Dash and React), database (PostgreSQL and SQLite), API (FastAPI) and parallelization (thread and multiprocess) solutions to optimize the pipeline’s performance.
-
Applied supervised machine learning methods (scikit-learn) for feature extraction, biomarker identification and prediction of clinical outcomes.
-
Formulated statistical models and unsupervised clustering algorithms to classify cells into subpopulations from immunological data.
-
Led a team of 5 with agile methods (SCRUM).
-
The CellFit Project is a collaboration led by Oslo University Hospital, Department of Cellular Therapy. It seeks to address one of the biggest challenges for cell-based cancer therapy – efficient and scalable production.
-
Expert Analytics. Oslo, Norway
Biomedical outreach representative (consultant)
Nov 2022 - Dec 2024
-
Secured 5 MNOK funding from Innovation Norway for the development of Cytofit - Bridging Data collection and Clinical Applications.
-
Represented Expert Analytics as member of Oslo Cancer Cluster.
-
Cultivated relationships with academic and industrial organizations in the biomedical sector at notable European gatherings like Cancer Crosslink 2023 and the Nordic Precision Medicine Forum 2023.
-
Oslo Cancer Cluster is an oncology research and industry cluster dedicated to improving the lives of cancer patients by accelerating the development of new cancer diagnostics and treatments.
-
Resonyx. Oslo, Norway
Senior data scientist and backend developer (consultant)
Mar 2021 - Nov 2022
-
Analyzed terabytes of high-frequency audio to detect short-lived anomalies and slow baseline variations over time.
-
Developed and deployed ML/AI models to predict failures in heavy hydropower machinery.
-
Maintained an AWS cloud infrastructure, including databases (DynamoDB), long-term storage (S3), roles (IAM) and monitoring systems (CloudWatch, CodePipeline, IoT Core).
-
Wrote API endopoints for CRUD operations between a frontend and cloud infrastructure.
-
Contributed to developing an edge-computing product that records and analyzes, uninterruptedly, high-frequency audio (up to 48 kHz) in locations with limited internet connectivity.
-
Led a team of 7 with agile methods (SCRUM) and handled direct communication with two energy companies in Norway (Statkraft AS and Agder Energi).
-
Edge Audio Analytics is a product developed in-house by Expert Analytics. It aims at extending the lifetime of assets through high-frequency data streams and AI-powered analysis of real-time signals.
-
Expert Analytics AS. Oslo, Norway
Consultant
Mar 2021 - Dec 2024
-
See the entries above for more details on my consultancy projects.
-
Expert Analytics AS is a private research and development company specialising in data science and industrial digitalisation.
-
Italian Institute of Technology. Genoa, Italy
Research collaborator - PhD fellow
Jan 2018 - Feb 2021
-
Studied the interaction between drugs and biomolecules with ML/AI and statistical inference models, in Python.
-
Employed numerical simulations to study functionalized metal nanoparticles interacting with biomacromolecules.
-
Targeted human and bacterial DNA topoisomerases for the development of novel anticancer and antimicrobial compounds.
-
Applied statistical methods to analyze hundreds of gigabytes of data.
-
Published six articles (plus three submitted and two in preparation) in peer-reviewed journals.
-
Supervised 2 master's students.
-
​Developed skills at project management, proposing research questions, designing experiments, programming and data analysis.
-
The Italian Institute of Technology is a foundation that promotes excellence in basic and applied research thus fostering Italy's economic development. The institute is a leading organization in biotechnology, nanosciences, neurology and robotics.
-
Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences - University of Oslo. Oslo, Norway.
Guest researcher
Sep 2018 - Dec 2018 and Sep 2019 - Dec 2019
-
Parallelized data analysis routines in high-performance computing (HPC) environments with PBS and Slurm.
-
Honed Python skills for data analysis and visualization.
-
Used numerical simulations and statistical methods to study polymer aggregation.
-
Wrote a systematic review on the topic of my research project.
-
The Hylleraas Centre is a Norwegian center of Excellence established by the Research Council of Norway. It aims to develop and apply computational methods to understand and predict new chemistry, physics and biology of molecules in complex and extreme environments.
-
University of the Andes. Bogotá, Colombia
Part-time professor
​Jan 2017 - Jun 2017
-
Professor of "Physical Chemistry Laboratory" and "General Chemistry Laboratory."
-
Graded over 50 assignments per week including lab reports, workshops, quizzes and exams.
-
Encouraged student engagement by employing teaching techniques such as open discussions and interactive presentations.
-
Maintained regular office hours to help students with questions and provide educational support.
-
The University of Los Andes is an autonomous, independent and innovative institution that fosters pluralism, tolerance and respect for ideas. It aims for academic excellence while providing rigorous critical and ethical character development.
-
University of the Andes. Bogotá, Colombia
Teaching assistant
​Jul 2013 - Dec 2016
-
Imparted 3-hour weekly lectures to 20+ students as a complement to the main sessions of various courses.
-
Graded exams and workshops as requested by the supervising professor on an "on-demand" basis.
-
Courses imparted:
* Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemistry
* Computational Chemistry
* Physical Chemistry II
* Physical Chemistry I
* Physical Chemistry Fundamentals
* Analytical Chemistry Fundamentals
* Introduction to the Modern Understanding of Atoms and Molecules
* General Chemistry
* General Physics
-
Italian Institute of Technology. Genoa, Italy
Research internship
​Jan 2016- Apr 2016
-
Participated in a drug discovery campaign for novel antimicrobial agents.
-
Used numerical simulations to study interactions between drugs and proteins.
-
Reported weekly to the principal investigator with multimedia presentations updating him on new results.
-
Developed skills in Python for the processing and analysis of data.
-
The Italian Institute of Technology is a foundation that promotes excellence in basic and applied research thus fostering Italy's economic development. The institute is a leading organization in biotechnology, nanosciences, neurology and robotics.
-
Italian Institute of Technology. Genoa, Italy
PhD in biotechnological, biocomputational, pharmaceutical,
and pharmacological sciences
​Nov 2017 - Mar 2021
-
Graduated with honors (cum laude).
-
Earned a research scholarship for carrying out the PhD studies at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT).
-
Thesis title: Multiscale Simulations to Investigate Nanoparticle Internalization and Transport Across the Cellular Membrane.
-
DataCamp
Certified online courses on data science and machine learning
​Aug 2019 - Aug 2020
-
Machine Learning Scientist career track certified online course (93 h).
-
Data Scientist career track certified online course (100 h).
-
Python Programmer career track certified online course (52 h).
-
Developed skills in data preprocessing, data visualization, linear/logistic models, SVM, CART, XGBoost, NLP and deep learning.
-
MIT Professional Education
Certified online courses on leadership and innovation
​May 2020 - June 2020
-
Five-week online course (40 h).
-
Three self-paced modules covering the five technologies that govern digital transformation in organizations, i.e., artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, the internet of things (IoT), cloud computing and cybersecurity.
-
Coordinated collaborative activities with other participants around the world: three discussion forums, three reflection essays and two exams.
-
The course included two seminars carried by leadership experts from MIT.
-
Performed extracurricular research on how the topics of the course related to institutional organization.
-
University of the Andes. Bogotá, Colombia
BSc. Physics
​Jan 2012 - Jul 2017
-
Member of the Computational Astrophysics research group.
-
Thesis title: Simulations of a Weakly Self-Interacting Fluid by Means of Lattice Boltzmann Methods.
-
University of the Andes. Bogotá, Colombia
BSc. Chemistry
​Aug 2011 - Dec 2016
-
Member of the Computational Bio-Organic Chemistry research group.
-
Thesis title: Application of Molecular Mechanics for the Discovery of Novel Microbial IIA Topoisomerases Inhibitors.
-
Leiden University. Leiden, The Netherlands
Modern Physics at All Scales Summer School
​Jun 2016 - Jul 2016
-
Program for undergraduate students to explore various research disciplines and applied physics under the guidance of leading experts.
-
Included talks, hands-on lab tours and cultural exchange events.
-
Supervised by: Prof. Dirk Bouwmeester.
-
Foundation for Educational Equity
Teacher
Dec 2020 - Jun 2021
-
Designed a year-long introductory Python course targeting high school students in remote areas of Colombia with limited internet access.
-
Provided slides and recorded teaching sessions.
-
Uniandinos Alumni Association. Quiero Mentoría ("I Want Mentorship Program")
Teacher
Aug 2020 - May 2021
-
Mentor of two undergraduate students.
-
Meet for 2-hours every month with each of the mentees to help them transition into a working environment or a postgraduate study program.
-
Offer guidance to the mentees throughout introspective exercises to determine their motivations and interests.
-
American Chemical Society. Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
Reviewer
Dec 2019 - Present
-
Peer reviewer of ca. 1 manuscript per month and comment on their potential for publication in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation and occasionally the Journal of Physical Chemistry.
-
Receive articles for review regarding computational chemistry methodologies, nanoparticles and biotechnological sciences.
-
University of the Andes. Bogotá, Colombia
Students representative of the chemistry department
​Oct 2013 - Sep 2015
-
Member of the board of directors as the representative to the University's Committee of Student Affairs.
-
Weekly assessment of escalated academic and disciplinary student cases.
-
Assisted any student with logistic and academic questions about the university's regulations.
-
Engaged in collaborative activities to improve the communication channels between university directives and students.
-
SOSAndes - Students Offering Support. Bogotá, Colombia
Teacher and fundraiser for poverty alleviation
​Aug 2012 - Jul 2013
-
Imparted lectures on differential calculus, physics and chemistry.
-
Money raised from the lectures imparted would go to the building of houses for homeless people in rural areas of Colombia.
-
Recruited students in need of academical support.
The supporting information files associated with each publication can be downloaded from the publisher's website directly, but feel free to contact me if you have any issue ;)
14/
Rational Design of Gold Nanoparticle-based Chemosensors for Detection of the Tumor Marker 3-Methoxytyramine
Franco-Ulloa, S., Cesari, A., Zanoni, G., Riccardi, L., Wallace, J., Mascitti, B. B.,
Rastrelli, F., Mancin, F. & De Vivo, M.
2025. Chem. Sci. 16: 6282-6289
13/
Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Detection Sensitivity in Nanoparticle-Assisted NMR Chemosensing
Franco-Ulloa, S., Cesari, A., Riccardi, L., De Biasi, F., Rosa-Gastaldo, D.,
Mancin, F., De Vivo, M. & Rastrelli, F.
2023. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 14 (30): 6912-6918
(Cover Article. Cover image by me)
12/
NanoModeler CG: A Tool for Modeling and Engineering Functional Nanoparticles at a Coarse-Grained Resolution
Franco-Ulloa, S., Riccardi, L., Rimembrana, F., Grottin, E., Pini, M. & De Vivo, M.
2023. J. Chem Theory Comput. 19 (5): 1582-1591
(Cover Article. Cover image by me)
11/
On the Metal-Aided Catalytic Mechanism for Phosphodiester Bond Cleavage
Performed by Nanozymes
Pecina, A., Rosa-Gastaldo, D., Riccardi, L., Franco-Ulloa, S., Milan, E., Scrimin, P., Mancin, F. & De Vivo, M..
2021. ACS Catal.. 11 (14): 8736-8748
(Cover Article. Cover image by Adam Pecina)
10/
Association Mechanism of Peptide-Coated Metal Nanoparticles with Model Membranes:
A Coarse-Grained Study
Franco-Ulloa, S., Guarnieri, D., Riccardi, L., Pompa, P. P. & De Vivo, M..
2021. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 17 (7): 4512-4523
(Cover Article. Cover image by me)
09/
Specific and nondisruptive interaction of guanidium-functionalized gold nanoparticles with neutral phospholipid bilayers
(Co-first author) Morillas-Becerril, L., Franco-Ulloa, S., Fortunati, I., Marotta, R., Sun. X., Zanoni,
G.Tatulli, G., De Vivo, M. & Mancin, F.
2021 Commun. Chem. 4: 93
08/
Novel Complexes with ONNO Tetradentate Coumarin Schiff-Base Donor Ligands: X-ray Structures, DFT Calculations, Molecular Dynamics and Potential Anticarcinogenic Activity
Mestizo, P.D., Narváez, D. M., Pinzón-Ulloa, J. A., Torres Di Bello, D., Franco-Ulloa, S., Macías, M. A.,
Groot, H., Miscione, G. P., Suescun, L. & Hurtado, J. J.
2021. Biometals. 34: 119-140
07/
Dispersion State Phase Diagram of Citrate-Coated Metallic Nanoparticles in Saline Solutions
Franco-Ulloa, S., Tatulli, G., Løland-Bore, S., Moglianetti, M., Pompa, P. P., Cascella, M., De Vivo, M.
2020. Nat. Comm. 5422
06/
Novel, Potent, and Druglike Tetrahydroquinazoline Inhibitor That Is Highly Selective for Human Topoisomerase II α over β
Ortega, J. A., Arencibia, J. M., Minniti, E., Byl, J. A. W., Franco-Ulloa, S., Borgogno, M., Genna, V.,
Summa, M., Bertozzi, S. M., Bertorelli, R., Armirotti, A., Minarini, A., Sissi, C. & De Vivo, M.
2020. J. Med. Chem. 63 (21): 12873-12886
05/
Design, Synthesis, Dynamic Docking, Biochemical Characterization, and In Vivo Pharmacokinetics Studies of Novel Topoisomerase II Poisons with Promising Antiproliferative Activity
Arencibia, J. M., Brindani, N., Franco-Ulloa, S., Nigro, M., Kuriappan, J. A., Ottonello, G., Bertozzi, S. M., Summa, M., Girotto, S., Bertorelli, S., Armirotti, A., De Vivo, M..
2020. J. Med. Chem. 63 (7): 3508-3521
04/
NanoModeler: A Webserver for Molecular Simulations and Engineering of Nanoparticles
Franco-Ulloa, S., Riccardi, L., Rimembrana, F., Pini, M. & De Vivo, M.​
2019. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 15 (3): 2022-2032
(Cover Article. Cover image by me)
03/
Cu(II) and Zn(II) Complexes with Dinitrobenzoates and Pyrazolyl Ligands: Structural and Thermal Stability Influence of N–H Moiety
Torres, J. F., Macías, M. A., Franco-Ulloa, S., Miscione, G. P., Cobo, J. & Hurtado, J. J.
2019. Cryst. Growth Des 19 (6): 3348-3357
02/
Novel Bacterial Topoisomerase Inhibitors Exploit Asp83 and the Intrinsic Flexibility of the DNA Gyrase Binding Site
Franco-Ulloa, S., La Sala, J., Miscione, G. P. & De Vivo, M.
2018. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 19 (2): 453
01/
La evolución del diseño de medicamentos y el rol de los métodos computacionales: Jugando a ser Dios (The evolution of drug design and the role of computational methods: Playing to be God)
Franco-Ulloa, S., Ramos-Guzmán, C. A. & Miscione, G. P.
2016. Hipótesis. 21: 40-49
-
Received 5 MNOK grant from Innovation Norway for Cytofit - Bridging Data Collection and Clinical Applications.
​
-
Invited speaker at the Intelligent Health Conference. 2024. Oslo, Norway.
​
-
Full scholarship from Becas Santander to enroll in an online course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The scholarship covered the enrollment fee of $3,200 of the MIT - Leading Digital Transformation certified course
​
-
Receiver of the research grant HP10CR7KHL from the Italian SuperComputing Resource Allocation-Class C (ISCRA-C). Receiver of 25,000 core hours from the SuperComputing Applications and Innovation (SCAI) center
​
-
Speaker at the Properties and Functionalities of Nanometer and Sub-Nanometer Sized Quantum Objects Gordon’s Research Conference. 2019. Les Diablerets, Switzerland
​​
-
Poster presentation at the New Perspectives of Nanostructured Devices and High-Resolution Characterization Techniques Gordon’s Research Seminar. 2019. Les Diablerets, Switzerland
​​
-
Poster presentation at the Nucleic acid immunity: from cellular mechanisms to new technologies SIBBM seminar. 2019. Bologna, Italy
​​
-
Speaker at the Challenges in modelling and simulations of nanoparticles in complex environments CECAM workshop. 2019. Genoa, Italy
​​
-
Poster presentation at the Translational and Health Informatics: Implications for Drug Discovery EuroQSAR Symposium. 2018. Thessaloniki, Greece
​
-
Poster presentation at the Multiscale modelling in electrophysiology: from atoms to organs CECAM workshop. 2018. Lugano, Switzerland
​​
-
Poster presentation at the 1st Protein Structure, Function, and Drug Discovery School. 2017. Bogotá, Colombia
​​
-
Speaker at the 42nd Theoretical Chemists of Latin Expression Congress. 2016. Montevideo, Uruguay
​​
-
Speaker at the 6th National Congress of Theoretical and Computational Chemists. 2016. Bogotá, Colombia
​
-
Speaker at the 2nd Colombian Congress of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 2016. Medellín, Colombia​