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Lab Members

 

  Zhiping Weng

Zhiping Weng, PhD

Chair, Genomics and Computational Biology

With two engineering degrees (BS in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Biomedical Engineering), I love to make things work better. I spend all my time writing grants and papers, teaching, and running Zlab. I am confident that one day I will figure out how to write a computer program to do all of the above.

AS5-1069
Tel: 508-856-8866

  Greg Andrews

 

Greg Andrews

PhD Student

I received my B.A.s in Chemistry and Mathematics from Boston University in 2012. I am currently interested in the application of machine learning, particularly deep learning, to study transcription factor binding.

AS5-1077

  Shaimae Elhajjajy

Shaimae Elhajjajy

PhD Student

I received my B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with minors in Computer Science and Bioinformatics & Computational Biology. My research focuses on the application of machine learning to better understand various aspects of RNA regulation, including RNA-binding proteins, RNA structure, and rates of transcription elongation. I am also interested in the study of RNA as a molecular target in therapeutics.

AS5-1075

  Mingshi Gao

Mingshi Gao

PhD Student

I received my BS in Biotechnology from Sun Yat-sen University. My current research interests include characterizing mammal open-chromatin landscapes and understanding the regulatory role of transcription factors in the human genome.

AS5-1075

 

Kotchaphorn Mangkalaphiban

Bioinformatician III

I received my B.S. in Biochemistry and Mathematics from Wilson College in 2015, and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from UMass Chan in 2023. My current research involves analyses of ribosome profiling data and application of machine learning to understand the nucleotide sequence contexts that govern stop codon readthrough efficiency.

AS5-1079

  Abigail Miller

Abigail Miller

Executive Assistant to the Chair

I graduated in 1998 from the University of Connecticut with a B.S. in Animal Science and 2007 from Auburn University with a M.S. in Biomedical Sciences. I worked as a scientist in many different labs for over 20 years on projects in Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Influenza, and a plethora of animal diseases, but then decided to change my focus to research administration. I graduated in 2018 from Emmanuel College with a graduate certificate in Research Administration. I help make sure BIB runs as smoothly as possible.

AS5-1067
Tel: 508-856-6112

  Nishigandha Phalke

Nishigandha Phalke

Bioinformatician Sr.

I have been working as a bioinformatician in ZLab since 2018. I received my BE in Computer Science from Pune University, India. I work on developing computational workflows, various application programming interfaces for many lab projects.

AS5-1086

 

Huong Phan

Bioinformatician

I received my B.S. in Mathematics from Earlham College in 2020, and M.S. in Statistics from University of Washington in 2023. I’m currently working on developing a pipeline for analyzing single-cell ATAC sequencing data to better understand cellular regulatory variations in the human genome.

AS5-1081

 

Nicole Shedd

PhD Student

I received B.S.s in bioinformatics and biology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2021. I first joined the lab in 2020 as an undergraduate. Now, my research focuses on understanding the complex genetic changes underlying human disease and development. I am interested in using chromatin, epigenetic, and transcriptomic data to better characterize the regulatory landscape of the brain.

AS5-1077

 

Ross Swofford

Bioinformatician Sr.

I graduated in 2007 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. I spent the next 16 years at the Broad Institute, then joined the Weng Lab as a bioinformatician in 2024. A reformed lab rat with a broad range of interests, I work on a variety of projects.

AS5-1086

 

Tianxiong Yu, PhD

PostDoc

Graduated from Tongji University of China in 2020, I received my B.S. degree in Bioinformatics and a Ph.D. degree in Biology. I have been a member of Zlab since 2017, when I was a visiting student. My research mainly focuses on mining small RNAs' treasures, particularly piRNAs', across multiple species, including human, mouse, koala, and fruit fly. I am also interested in studying genome variations using single-cell genomic sequencing data.

AS5-1079

Zlab's Address

UMass Chan Medical School
Albert Sherman Center
368 Plantation Street
Worcester, MA 01605