2023 Bioinformatics Workshop

Dr. Beth Cimini is a Senior Group Leader, CZI Imaging Scientist and head of the Cimini Lab in the Imaging Platform at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. She obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn at UCSF, studying splicing variants of the telomere master scaffolding protein TIN2. This work honed her interests in image analysis, leading her to postdoctoral and staff scientist roles with Dr. Anne Carpenter’s lab at the Broad, leading a team collaborating with ~30 outside scientists per year on custom image analysis projects. The Cimini Lab focuses on bioimage analysis tool creation (Piximi) and maintenance (CellProfiler), as well as on applying open source tools to novel biological problems. She created and directs the Platform’s Postdoctoral Training Program in Bioimage Analysis, and also leads the Broad efforts towards community engagement and driving biological projects for the Center for Open Bioimage Analysis (COBA).

Prof. Rocklin earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco and then did postdoctoral research at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design. He joined Northwestern’s Department of Pharmacology and Center for Synthetic Biology in 2019. His lab develops high-throughput experimental methods to understand protein biophysics and improve computational protein design. His lab is also a member of the international Rosetta Commons consortium for biomolecular modeling and design. In 2020, his lab was awarded an NIH New Innovator award to support their research into protein conformational dynamics.

Dr. Xiang Zhou is an associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He is also an assistant director at the University of Michigan Precision Health. He has been an associate professor since Sept. 2019. Dr. Zhou joined the department as an assistant professor in 2014 and became the John G. Searle Assistant Professor in the department in 2018-2019. Before joining the University of Michigan, he was a Williams H. Kruskal Instructor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Chicago in 2013-2014. He received an M.S. degree in statistics in 2009 (adviser: Prof. Scott Schmidler) and a Ph.D. degree in neurobiology in 2010 (adviser: Prof. Fan Wang), both from Duke University. He was a postdoctoral scholar working with Prof. Matthew Stephens at the University of Chicago during 2010-2013. Dr. Zhou’s current research focus is on developing statistical methods and computational tools for analyzing large-scale genetic and genomic studies.

Dr. Edward L. Evans III is a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Kevin Eliceiri at the Laboratory for Optics and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI) in Madison, Wisconsin. Edward obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from San Francisco State University in 2013, where he researched the evolution and phylogenetic relationships of avian blood parasites (e.g., malarias) and their hosts. After completing his undergraduate degree, he was accepted into the cancer biology graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focused on the nature of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) species-specific viral-host incompatibilities with Dr. Nathan Sherer. In Dr. Sherer’s lab, Edward developed skills in retrovirology, fixed cell microscopy and live cell video microscopy. To process the large quantities of image data being generated by his research, Edward began developing automated image processing pipelines. After completing his graduate studies with Dr. Sherer, Edward moved to Dr. Eliceiri’s group, where he joined the core ImageJ development team. There, Edward primarily focuses on PyImageJ (a python library for integrating ImageJ and Python), integrating machine learning frameworks with ImageJ and the development of automated image processing workflows with collaborators.

Max is currently a Senior Product Application Scientist on the CZ CELLxGENE team at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and works at the intersection of product, technology, and single cell. Prior to working at CZI, he was a computational biologist at Kallyope where he was an early contributor to the company’s platform for understanding gut and gut-brain biology to transform human health. Max obtained his M.Sc. and M.A. degrees in Computational Science and Biotechnology from the University of Amsterdam and Columbia University, respectively.

Dr. Xiang Feng earned his B.S in biotechnology from Fudan University and his Ph.D. in pharmacology from Baylor College of Medicine. His graduate work focused on the computational structural biology of membrane proteins. In 2017, he joined the lab of Dr. Huilin Li at Van Andel Institute to continue the study of protein structures with the cryo-EM method. He currently is a research scientist the Li Lab and his research interests include the function and molecular mechanism of protein complexes that are involved in DNA replication and electron bifurcating redox reactions.

Lauren Harmon is a third-year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Tim Triche at Van Andel Institute. Her research is focused on understanding genetic predisposition to pediatric acute myeloid leukemia by analyzing genetic data and modeling DNA variants in zebrafish.

Vladimir Molchanov is a fourth-year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Tao Yang at Van Andel Institute. His research focuses on developing a targeted stem cell-based therapeutic technology for the treatment of osteoarthritis and other degenerative diseases.