Dr. David Fenyö’s research focuses on providing a detailed understanding of the dynamics of cellular processes. He applies mathematical, statistical, and computational methods to optimize experimental design, analyze quantitative data, and model biological systems. In particular, he uses proteomic approaches to develop methods to identify, characterize, and quantify proteins. His efforts to integrate data from multiple technologies - including mass spectrometry, sequencing, and microscopy - have provided a wide array of powerful tools for discover and verify biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer.

Dr. Fenyö studied engineering physics, with a focus on mathematical and numerical methods, at Uppsala University in Sweden. After receiving an M.Sc. in 1987, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Bo Sundqvist at Uppsala University, and studied the mechanisms of ion–solid interaction both experimentally, and using molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations. For this work, he received a Ph.D. in Physics in 1991. He then joined the laboratory of Dr. Brian Chait at the Rockefeller University, where he started developing algorithms to analyze proteomic data obtained using mass spectrometry. In 1997 he co-founded ProteoMetrics, a bioinformatics startup that sought to commercialize these algorithms. He served as the President of ProteoMetrics until 2002, and during this time created several software packages, including a distributed software system for fully automated analysis of large-scale proteomics data. Subsequently, he served as the Director of Proteomics at Genomic Solutions, and as Staff Scientist and Product Manager at Amersham Biosciences and GE Healthcare before returning to academia.

Dr. Fenyö is currently a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Interim Director for the Center for Health Informatics and Bioinformatics at New York University Langone Medical Center, Director for the Biomedical Informatics Shared Resource at the Cancer Institute, Co-Director for the Biomedical Informatics Core at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and Graduate Director for the Ph.D. program in biomedical informatics. He is also participating in the programs of the NCI's Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium and the National Center for Dynamic Interactome Research.

Dr. Fenyö has almost 30 years of experience with all aspects of proteomic and mass spectrometric data analysis in both academia and industry. During these years, he has laid a statistical foundation to test the significance of protein identification results, developed search engines that identify proteins by matching mass spectrometric and sequence data, and built commercial software packages for fully automated high-throughput identification and quantitation of proteins. He has more than 100 scientific publications in these areas.

Dr. Fenyö also publishes proteomics news on his twitter account @CompProteomics.