Cory Brouwer, Ph.D.
Email: Cory.Brouwer@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Bioinformatics Services Division
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Cory R. Brouwer is Director of the Bioinformatics Services Division and Associate Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics at UNC Charlotte. He and his team provide a wide range of bioinformatics and computational biology services to the NCRC, UNC Charlotte and surrounding area life sciences community. Recent projects and research interests include data integration, clinical association studies, personalized medicine and the use of next generation sequencing for gene expression, variant detection and assembly.
Xiuxia Du, Ph.D.
Email: Xiuxia.Du@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Du Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Du’s research program of Metabolomics & Proteomics Bioinformatics focuses on developing computational and visual analytics algorithms for processing and analyzing mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and proteomics data and for integrating the resultant information with genomics and transcriptomics data for obtaining a systematic understanding of interactions between metabolites, enzymes, and genes.
Anthony Fodor, Ph.D.
Email: AFodor@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Fodor Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Fodor’s research program focuses on algorithm and method development in bioinformatics. He is particularly interested in the application of new high-throughput sequencing technology to the study of complex microbial communities. Microbial ecosystems currently under study in his lab include human and mouse gut microbes, bacteria within the activated sludge of a North Carolina wastewater treatment plant and the microbial community within the South Fork of the Eel River in Mendocino County, California.
Cynthia Gibas, Ph.D.
Email: CGibas@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Gibas Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Cynthia Gibas is a Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Director of the Bioinformatics and Computational PhD program. Her research interests include the diversity and function of microbial communities in human-impacted and built environments. She is currently the director of the university’s COVID-19 wastewater-based epidemiology program and serving as a member of the university’s COVID-19 testing, tracing and monitoring task force. She has recently been developing collaborative research in viral outbreak surveillance and geospatial analysis of viral genome and virome sequencing data.
Jun-tao Guo, Ph.D.
Email: JGuo4@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Guo Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Guo’s research interests are in structural bioinformatics. More specifically, his lab focuses on developing computational methods for studying protein-DNA interactions, structure-based transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) prediction, and structural prediction of alternatively spliced protein isoforms. Dr. Guo is also interested in studying the evolution of regulatory pathways.
Dan Janies, Ph.D.
Email: DJanies@uncc.edu
Lab Website:
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Janies is a national principal investigator in the Tree of Life program (http://echinotol.org) of the National Science foundation and is funded by the Defense Applied Research Projects Agency. His work involves empirical studies of organismal diversity and development of software, such as Supramap (http://supramap.org). Supramap is used by public health scientists to put pathogen genomic data into context with geography and hosts. The results are akin to weather maps for disease. Dr. Janies is the director of the Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks (CIPHER) CIPHER.charlotte.edu
Ann Loraine, Ph.D.
Email: ALoraine@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Loraine Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
The Loraine group is located at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. We study: (a) Alternative splicing – effects of splicing diversity on biological systems; (b) visualization software for genomics – how software dictates what we learn from data; and (c) active learning in bioinformatics – how learning by doing transforms users into builders. Our team includes trainees and professional staff with diverse expertise, from software engineering to plant biotechnology. We provide hands-on, personalized training in diverse areas, including: molecular biology, software development, and bioinformatics data analysis.
Weijun Luo, Ph.D.
Email: Weijun.Luo@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Bioinformatics Services Division
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Luo conducts research across a broad range of topics in bioinformatics and biostatistics. His major research interests include:computational method development and implementation; high throughput genomic, expression and metabolomics data analysis, big data analytics and high performance computing. He collaborates with scientists from numerous research institutions studying complex diseases and processes using systems biology approach. He also works on translational bioinformatics, i.e. direct applications of high throughput omics technologies and bioinformatics in clinic, like disease prevention, diagnosis, and personalized medicine.
Rebekah Rogers, PH.D.
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
The Rogers lab works on population genomics of genome structure mutations in Drosophila and other organisms. She is creating a population genomic panel to study complex mutations, such as duplications, deletions, and chromosomal rearrangements and their contribution to local adaptation in Drosophila yakuba.
Jessica Schlueter, Ph.D.
Email: JSchluet@uncc.edu
Lab Website: J. Schlueter Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Schlueter's research program is focused on plant genomics and understanding genome structure to improve crops. Current projects include an NSF-funded program to sequence the hexaploid oat genome, understanding ozone stress tolerance in soybeans, miRNA profiling in oats and soybeans, and developing genetic tools for Yaupon, a native North American tea plant.
ZhengChang Su, Ph.D.
Email: ZcSu@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Su Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Su’s research focus is on computational inference and modeling of regulatory networks/pathways. His work involves the characterization and modeling of transcriptional regulatory networks in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Other interests include molecular modeling and simulation of protein/membrane complexes.
Way Sung, Ph.D.
Email: wsung@uncc.edu
Lab Website:
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Sung’s research program focuses on understanding microbial genome evolution and architecture. His current research includes developing theoretical, computational, and molecular techniques to understand the evolution of genome architecture and mutation rate in microbes, with a focus on microbial pathogens and multi-chromosomal bacteria. In addition, Dr. Sung seeks to understand the distribution of fitness effects of deleterious mutations within these organisms. Current projects include developing microbial mutation-accumulation lines in controlled microfluidic chambers, large-scale high-throughput sequencing and data analysis of mutational properties in microbes, and high-throughput competition assays using droplet-digital PCR technology.
Jennifer Weller, Ph.D.
Email: JWeller2@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Weller Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Weller’s research interests include the management, integration, analysis and mining of high-throughput datasets, specifically of nucleic acids. Each molecule has structural as well as sequence characteristics that affect the measurement process – correct biological interpretation requires that other factors be accounted for. My lab works at understanding the influence of structure and either mitigating by wet-lab procedures or compensating with computational methods. We have worked with several groups at the Carolinas Health Center to identify blood biomarkers for ovarian cancer and ALS, with the goal of producing robust companion assays for assigning treatment regimens. We have been working with collaborators at Wake Forest University to develop platforms that allow identification of proteins that bind to specific nucleic acid motifs, such as aptamers and transcription factor binding sites.
Laurel Yohe, Ph.D.
Email: lyohe1@uncc.edu
Lab Website: Yohe Lab
Published Works: Google Scholar
Research Description:
Dr. Yohe's research program is focuses on the genomics, bioinformatics, and evolution of animals with extreme adaptations. From histology to contrast CT scanning, from PCR to -omics, from a quick bash script to deep-learning algorithms, Dr. Yohe and her lab use a variety of techniques to answer questions grounded in comparative biology about how some of the most extreme adaptations have evolved. Much of her work investigates bats, linking dietary diversification and specialization to immune function and viral tolerance.