Advisory Board and Editors Bioinformatics
Zhijin Wu
I develop statistical methodology and software for the analysis of -omics data. I am particularly interested in the regulation of transcription: the molecular mechanism as well as its association with disease.
Wei Xu
Dr. Wei Xu received his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from University of Toronto. He is currently a scientist and principle biostatistician in Princess Margaret Hospital on clinical research of cancer diseases. He is a faculty member at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Medical Statistics and Informatics. Dr. Xu's research interests are statistical genetics and clinical trial design and analysis. He is the author or co-author of over 100 publications in peer-review journals.
Rendong Yang
Dr. Yang is an assistant professor and section leader for cancer genomics at the Hormel Institute. Dr. Yang obtained his PhD in the China Agricultural University, where his work involved the topic of microarray data analysis. Briefly he developed two statistical models, called ARSER and LSPR, to detect periodically expressed transcripts from evenly or unevenly sampled temporal microarray gene expression profiles respectively. By applying these algorithms to Arabidopsis and rice transcriptome, a list of novel clock-controlled genes that regulating plant circadian rhythm were identified. Dr. Yang finished his postdoctoral training at Emory University, where his research switched to cancer genomics and epigenomics. Working with researchers in Winship Cancer Institute, he developed a bioinformatics pipeline to analyze the whole genome mate-pair and pair-end sequencing and RNA-seq data from three tumor cells in multiple myeloma, which leads to discovering a novel SPI-ZNF287 t(11;17) translocation. After postdoctoral training, Dr. Yang joined Supercomputing Institute at University of Minnesota as a Bioinformatics Analyst working on both clinical genomics and prostate cancer research to define and characterize AR gene rearrangements from DNA-seq data, and also to interrogate genome-wide binding profiles of AR and AR variants in prostate cancer cells and tissues.
Venkata Yellapantula
Bioinformatician currently at Memorial Loan Kettering Cancer Center with 10 years of experience in analyzing high-throughput genomic and proteomic data. I have a diverse background in handling raw exome & whole genome sequencing, RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq data to identify genetic aberrations. Proficient in development and implementing pipelines and algorithms and post analysis of aberrations identified through individual assays to glean novel biological patterns. Led large-scalegenomic efforts such as MMRF CoMMpass trial, ICGC & TCGA.
Mark T Young
’m a Scottish evolutionary biologist and vertebrate palaeontologist. My research focus is on major evolutionary transitions: understanding both how and why the vertebrate body-plan radically transforms when adapting to new niches. My interdisciplinary approach including biomechanics, comparative anatomy, neuroanatomy, nomenclature, philosophy of biology, phylogenetics, and systematics/taxonomy.
My areas of research are:
(1) The land-to-sea transition of fossil marine crocodylomorphs. This focuses on the biology of Thalattosuchia (marine crocs that evolved flippers and a tail fin during the Age of Dinosaurs). My research includes understanding their endocranial anatomy, sensory systems, evolutionary relationships, and morphofunctional diversity. Finally, what do thalattosuchians tell us about common evolutionary pathways seen in secondarily aquatic vertebrates?
(2) The air-to-land transition within Columbidae (pigeons and doves). This focuses on the biology of the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) and the Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria). My research includes understanding their skeletal anatomy, locomotory biomechanics, and evolutionary relationships. Finally, what does the Dodo tell us about common evolutionary pathways seen in secondarily flightless birds.
(3) Philosophy of biology. The goal of the sciences is to cumulatively gather descriptive and ultimately causal understanding of objects and events. My research includes ensuring that my work is compatible with the goal of scientific inquiry, and to promote a view of biology and biological research that encapsulates biological theory, applied technological innovation, with a philosophical underpinning.
(4) Promotion of best practice in descriptive biology and zoological nomenclature. Given the current ‘age of extinctions’ we are living through and the dire shortage of trained taxonomists, there is a greater need than ever to ensure that taxonomic and descriptive research meets best practice and is compatible with the goal of scientific inquiry.
I am an ICZN Commissioner, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and a member of the Royal Society of Biology (RSB). I have Chartered Biologist status, registered with the RSB. I am a member of two IUCN Species Survival Commission groups: the Crocodile Specialist Group, and the Pigeon & Dove Specialist Group. I am the editor-in-chief of Historical Biology, and also an academic editor for PeerJ and PeerJ Open Advances in Zoology.
Jiyang Yu
Dr. Jiyang Yu's research is focused on systems biology, systems immunology, single-cell systems biology, immuno-oncology, translational oncology and functional genomics. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Zhejiang University, China. In 2008-2012, he was trained in Dr. Andrea Califano’s laboratory at Columbia University and earned his PhD degree in Biomedical Informatics.
Massimiliano Zanin
Principal Researcher at Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (IFISC), Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
My interest is mainly focus on the application of modelling tools (and especially complex networks theory and data mining) to a wide range of problems, from the air transport to the interactions within cells.
Jian Zhang
Dr. Jian Zhang currently works at the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery & Gastric Cancer Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. Jian does research in Genetics/Epigenetics and Cancer Research. He is also the editorial board member of Frontiers in Oncology and Frontiers in Bioinformatics.
Qianwen Zhang
Dr. Qianwen Zhang is an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University.
Her research is focusing on Organic Agriculture, Biostimulant Application, Controlled Environment Agriculture, Hydroponics, Analytical Chemistry, Food Science, Microbiology, and Sensory Evaluation.
Yuliang Zhang
Dr. Zhang is a Staff Scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. His research mainly focuses on bio-molceular interaction by using microscopy and Molecular Dynamic simulations. He served as PI and Co-I in two projects.
Xin Zhang
Dr. Xin Zhang is Department Director and Principal Investigator of the Clinical Experimental Center at Jiangmen Central Hospital (China). He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from Sun Yat-sen University in 2016. Dr. Zhang is an enthusiastic, early career scientist involved in interdisciplinary training and has a strong biological background, including molecular pathology, molecular diagnostics, and molecular pharmacology. His current research interests mainly focus on the molecular mechanism of tumor recurrence and metastasis, clinical application of molecular diagnosis, and molecular pharmacological mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in potential therapeutic application of cancer.
Yu-Dong Zhang
From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Yudong (Eugene) Zhang worked at Columbia University as a postdoc. From 2012 to 2013, he worked as an assistant research scientist at Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute. From 2013 to 2017, he is a full professor and doctoral advisor at School of Computer Science and Technology at Nanjing Normal University. He also serves as the academic leader of the“Jiangsu key laboratory of 3D printing equipment and manufacturing”. At present, he is a Professor in Knowledge Discovery and Machine Learning, in Department of Informatics, University of Leicester, United Kingdom. His research interests focus on computer-aided medical diagnosis and biomedical image processing.