Lab Members
Zhiping Weng, PhDChair, 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. |
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Greg AndrewsPhD 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. |
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Shaimae ElhajjajyPhD 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. |
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Mingshi GaoPhD 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. |
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Kotchaphorn MangkalaphibanBioinformatician 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. |
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Abigail MillerExecutive 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. |
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Nishigandha PhalkeBioinformatician 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. |
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Huong PhanBioinformatician 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. |
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Nicole SheddPhD 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. |
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Ross SwoffordBioinformatician 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. |
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Tianxiong Yu, PhDPostDoc 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. |
Zlab's Address
UMass Chan Medical School
Albert Sherman Center
368 Plantation Street
Worcester, MA 01605