Mike Hallett completed his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria before joining the ETH Zürich as a postdoctoral researcher. During his time in Switzerland, he focused on developing algorithms related to genome evolution. Returning to Canada in 2000, he joined the Departments of Computer Science and Biochemistry at McGill University, where he developed biomarker panels along with the corresponding machine learning/statistical methodologies required for gene expression signature analyses. This work was primarily targeted towards breast cancer and employed a variety of high-throughput technologies to profile tumors and their microenvironments.