Research:

  • Comparative genomics: identified specific virulence genes for bacterial pathogen detection (in collaboration with the Department of Biological Systems Engineering).
  • Transcriptomics: 
    1. investigated the effect of exercise in two different types of cells (in collaboration with the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise). 
    2. examined the effect of ultrasound treatments in cells located at different positions of a tissue (in collaboration with the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center).
    3. assessed the effects of several genes on disease-defense responses in tobacco (in collaboration with the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences).
  • Epigenomics & Transcriptomics Integration: investigated the effect of a tumor suppressing gene/protein in certain cell types (in collaboration with the Department of Biochemistry). 

Teaching & Mentoring: 

  • Mentored three undergraduate Computational Modeling and Data Analytic (CMDA) students in the area of comparative genomics to investigate Salmonella outbreak characteristics across continents through training in relevant biological concepts, coding and cloud high-performance computing (Python, R, and UNIX tools), project management, etc.
  • Assisted two Virginia Tech graduate students with questions related to bioinformatics projects during our weekly Zoom drop-in hours 
  • Planned and built an applied data science Python coding course

Community:

  • Implemented a university-wide bioinformatic needs survey
  • Prepared guidance documents relevant to reproducible data analysis workflow, data management, data security, etc.