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Lab Members

		Zhiping Weng, PhD Director, Program in Bioinformatics & Integrative 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 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 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
		Kaili Fan PhD Student I received my M.S. from Tongji University in Bioinformatics after completing my undergraduate studies at Harbin Medical University, China. I am interested in mining all kinds of sequencing data to gain biologically meaningful insights. Currently, I focus on integrating epigenetic and transcriptome data to decipher the role of regulatory elements. AS5-1079
		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
		Natalie Haas Bioinformatician I received my B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UMass Amherst. I have been a member of Zlab since 2022. My current research involves refining ribosome profiling data and its applications to various translational anomalies. My ultimate research and career goals are to pursue a PhD in Bioinformatics, continue to investigate complex genomic and proteomic data, and invent novel code to process and assimilate said data in the most intuitive manner achievable. AS5-1081
		Abigail Miller Administrative Assistant III 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
		Edith Pfister, Ph.D. Assistant Professor I have a BA in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences. After receiving my Ph.D., I spent 9 years exploring and developing gene and oligonucleotide therapeutics for Huntington’s disease, but my passion has always been Science Communication. Now, I spend my time writing and editing grants and papers. I maintain an active interest in gene therapy and therapeutic development. AS4-2063
		Nishigandha Phalke 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. AS5-1086
		Thomas Reimonn MD/PhD Student I earned my bachelors in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. My research focuses on improving our understanding of how the genetic risk factors for psychiatric disease alter regulatory regions in brain tissues. Using chromatin, epigenetic, and gene expression data, I work on tracking genetic changes to their functional role. My research interests include analyzing bulk and single-cell gene expression and epigenetic data. AS5-1066
		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
		Askar Temirbek Rotation Student I did undergraduate studies at UMass Amherst in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as well as a graduate studies from WPI in Bioscience Management and Nanotechnology while working on nanomedicine development at Pfizer. My research interests include understanding how genomic, transcriptomic and epigenetic changes influence immune system function and cancer development. AS5-1070
		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