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Lab Members

		Zhiping Weng, Ph.D. Chair, Department of 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, Ph.D. Senior Bioinformatician I received my B.A.s in Chemistry and Mathematics from Boston University in 2012, and I received my Ph.D. from UMass Chan in 2024. I am currently interested in the application of machine learning, particularly deep learning, to study transcription factor binding. AS5-1077
		Maxwell Campbell Ph.D. Student I received my BSc in Biology from UMass Amherst in 2023 and completed my Master’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2024. I joined the Zlab in 2025 as a PhD student. As a Type 1 diabetic, I’m particularly interested in the genetic basis of autoimmune disorders and how regulatory elements influence gene expression and disease susceptibility. AS5-1081
		Alyssa Funk, Ph.D. PostDoc I earned my PhD in Computational Biology from Brown University, my MS in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UMass Boston, and my BS in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley. I joined ZLab in 2024. I love diving into deep sequencing data to explore how human genome variation impacts gene regulation and function. AS5-1079
		Mingshi Gao, Ph.D. PostDoc I received my BS in Biotechnology from Sun Yat-sen University and my Ph.D. from UMass Chan in 2024. My current research interests include characterizing mammal open-chromatin landscapes and understanding the regulatory role of transcription factors in the human genome. AS5-1075
		Ben Kresge Bioinformatician I received my B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2024 and joined ZLab later that year. I'm passionate about leveraging computer science to tackle biological challenges and have a (mostly) healthy obsession with uncovering how things work. AS5-1081
		Jair Meza Software Engineer Associate I graduated in 2024 from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Computer Science, and joined the ZLab that same year. I am responsible for developing websites to go along with our research, such as our in-house genome browser. As a developer, I aim to provide a great user experience while providing the user with top tier functionality. AS5-1065
		Anisha Mhatre Ph.D. student I completed my Master’s in Bioinformatics and Biotechnology from the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore India, in 2021. I'm passionate about exploring how cancers repurpose embryonic regulation programs and how developmental biology can offer new insights into tumor behavior. AS5-1075
		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 GCB runs as smoothly as possible. AS5-1067 Tel: 508-856-6112
		Nishigandha Phalke Senior Bioinformatician 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. AS5-1065
		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. AS5-1075
		Christian Samuel Ramirez PREP student I received my BSc in 2024 with a major in Cellular and Molecular Biochemistry and a minor in Mathematics. I’m currently apart of in the PREP post-baccalaureate program at UMass. I am researching transcription factor binding patterns and regulatory mechanisms using advanced computational methods and high-throughput sequencing data analysis. AS5-1081
		Nicole Shedd Ph.D. Candidate 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 Senior Bioinformatician 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. AS5-1065
		Tianxiong Yu, Ph.D. 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