Dr. Adey started out in biotechnology development at the University of Texas where he researched alternative applications of microarrays in the lab of Andrew D. Ellington, Ph.D. He later served as interim director of the UT microarray core facility and then helped set up the UT genome sequencing and analysis facility in the early days of next generation sequencing. He then completed his doctoral studies in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program at the University of Washington in the lab of Jay Shendure, M.D., Ph.D. in the Genome Sciences Department.

Previous research highlights include pioneering a novel transposase-based method for rapid, low-input DNA sequencing library construction, which I extended to the genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation. I also applied long-range sequencing methods to produce the first haplotype resolved genome and epigenome of an aneuploid cell line, HeLa, where I investigated the role of haplotype and copy number on the epigenetic and transcriptional landscape. I plan to continue my focus on the development and implementation of novel strategies to investigate the epigenome with high precision. This includes single cell approaches to disambiguate epigenetic and transcriptional heterogeneity within populations of cells which is typically obscured by bulk preparation methods. This work will provide insight into the dynamic regulatory landscape of cells and may reveal functional and targetable subpopulations in the context of disease intervention.