Section: Research

Postdoctoral Position Available

Lab Page Link

Zhiping Weng, Ph.D.

Academic Role: Professor

Faculty Appointment(s) In:
   Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
   Program in Bioinformatics & Integrative Biology

Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics

My research is focused on computational analysis of genomic and epigenomic data. We are particularly interested in understanding (1) transcriptional regulation and (2) the function and regulation of small RNAs in metazoans.

Transcriptional Regulation: We aim to develop computational methods for understanding the molecular mechanism of transcriptional regulation. Specifically, we develop novel ways to discover cis-regulatory elements in genomic DNA.  Because such elements are of low information content, we pursue multiple approaches: (1) better characterizing transcriptional start sites and alternative proximal promoters; (2) detecting cis-element clusters using probabilistic models; (3) identifying genes that are co-regulated and taking advantage of the enrichment of the same cis-elements in their promoters; (4) analyzing genome-wide ChIP-chip and ChIP-seq data on a large number of transcription factors; (5) analyzing DNA hypersensitivity and FAIRE data to detect long-range regulatory elements; (6) analyzing and integrating epigenomic data such as DNA methylation and histone modification. We are one of the awardees by the ENCODE project of National Institutes of Health. The goal of this project is to identify all regulatory elements in the human genome. Our ENCODE awards funds for the identification of transcriptional factor binding sites at base-pair resolution by a combination of computational prediction and experimental testing.

Small RNAs: Upon the move to UMass Medical School (Jan 2008), we have started to collaborate with several outstanding experimental labs that study small RNAs in the fly and the worm. We are analyzing deep sequencing data to identify the function and targets of these small RNAs.

Office: LRB 1010
Phone: 508-856-8866
Fax: 508-856-2392
E-mail: Zhiping.Weng@umassmed.edu
Keywords: Systems Biology, Genomics, Bioinformatics, Gene Expression, Gene Regulation

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Postdoctoral Position Available Please contact Dr. Weng directly for more information regarding post-doctoral postions that are available.