Department of biochemistry researcher Dr Joseph Guhlin switched codes from programming dating apps to working in biology eight years ago.
He spent the past four years creating state-of-the-art methods to help with conservation efforts to save endangered kākāpō.
Using Google DeepVariant, an analysis software that was used to track genetic variants in people, Dr Guhlin took high quality data to analyse traits in the nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrots.
"We’re able to take four decades of trait data, including how many eggs they lay and how fast they grow, and we’re able to associate that with the genetic variance," Dr Guhlin said.
The trait data from the first 60 days of growth in a kākāpō could be used to determine if veterinarian intervention was needed, he said.
Additionally, because every kākāpō alive was a part of the data set, specific information for each individual kākāpō was available when making a diagnosis.
"Now with the genetic data we can use their parents’ attributes for them and get a better view of if they are growing too fast or too slow rather than just looking at an average," Dr Guhlin said.
He said this also allowed for the limited resources to be allocated more economically when treating the birds and intervention could be done at an individual level.
The code and methodologies he developed were also available online in a open source platform for other researchers to apply to their work.
Dr Guhlin said there were not many programmers working in conservation but a programming skill set made conservation work a lot more efficient.
"It kind of gives you superpowers in the genomics world because you can run a lot of big data through analysis quick."
He said the Department of Conservation had already been able to apply his research.
"When they found the birds initially, they didn’t know how related they were and so they had assumed how much each one is related to each other, but now they know how related they are to each other."
He said this enabled the breeding process to be a lot more successful, with less hatching failures caused by inbreeding.
