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Qingyun Liu, PhD

October 12, 2023

Qingyun Liu, PhD

Assistant Professor of Genetics

Core Faculty
Phone: 919-843-6471 | Office: 5061 Genetic Medicine Building
Email: Qingyun_Liu@med.unc.edu | Website: https://qingyunliulab.com/

Research Areas: Population genomics, Bacterial evolution, Infectious disease, Antibiotic resistance, Pathogenicity
Research Interests: Infectious diseases due to highly pathogenic microbes continue to pose a persistent and evolving threat to humans. The Liu lab studies the evolutionary mechanisms underlying drug resistance and transmissibility in bacterial pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium abscessus, among others.


Tessa Andermann, MD MPH

December 12, 2022

Tessa Andermann, MD MPH

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Resource Faculty
Phone: 919-843-0834 | Office: 2341E Medical Biomolecular Research Building
Email: tessa_andermann@med.unc.edu | Website: https://www.med.unc.edu/medicine/infdis/directory/tessa-andermann/

Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics
Research Interests: As an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UNC-Chapel Hill, Tessa Andermann, MD, MPH, conducts multi-disciplinary research focused on investigating the impact of the intestinal microbiome on cancer outcomes. Her current projects include: 1) Investigating the role of the gut antimicrobial “resistome” in the development of bloodstream and other infections with multi-drug-resistant organisms in patients with hematologic malignancies, 2) developing microbial predictors of therapeutic efficacy and therapy-related gastrointestinal complications following administration of cellular and other immunotherapies in patients with cancer, and 3) using the intestinal microbiome as a tool to inform antimicrobial stewardship in immunocompromised patients.


Brian Miller, MD PhD

February 25, 2022

Brian Miller, MD PhD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Oncology

Resource Faculty
Phone: 919-966-7763 | Office: 5202 Marsico Hall
Email: BrianMiller@med.unc.edu | Website: http://www.themillerlab.org/

Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Systems Biology, Computational Genomics
Research Interests: The Miller lab is working to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy to treat cancer. Using single-cell transcriptomic and epigenetic techniques, along with functional genomic approaches, we want to understand the determinants of immune cell differentiation and function in the tumor microenvironment.


Laura Raffield, PhD

January 26, 2022

Laura Raffield, PhD

Assistant Professor of Genetics

Core Faculty
Phone: (919) 966-7255 | Office: 5042 Genetic Medicine Building
Email: raffield@email.unc.edu | Website: https://www.med.unc.edu/genetics/directory/laura-raffield-phd/

Research Areas: Computational Genomics, Statistical and Population Genetics
Research Interests: My research program uses human genomics and multi-omics to understand inherited and environmental risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and related quantitative traits, particularly in understudied African American and Hispanic/Latino populations.


Shawn Ahmed, PhD

November 12, 2021

Shawn Ahmed, PhD

Professor of Genetics and Biology

Resource Faculty
Phone: 919-843-4780 | Office: 216 Fordham Hall
Email: shawn@med.unc.edu | Website: http://labs.bio.unc.edu/ahmed/

Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Comparative Genomics and Molecular Evolution, Computational Genomics
Research Interests: We are interested in understanding potential functions of nuclear foci that are composed of telomere binding proteins, whose levels can be altered for several generations by a single gamete. This novel form of epigenetic inheritance may be relevant to roles that telomeres play in human aging, in cancer biology, and potentially to the mysterious relationship of environmental stress with human telomere length. We primarily study the nematode C. elegans but are also in translating our work to human biology. We are broadly interested in creative approaches to study telomere biology, genome silencing, small RNAs and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.


Jeremy Wang, PhD

November 1, 2021

Jeremy Wang, PhD

Assistant Professor of Genetics

Core Faculty
Phone: (919) 886-4006 | Office: 3144 Genome Sciences Building
Email: jeremy_wang@med.unc.edu | Website: http://jwanglab.org/

Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics
Research Interests: Genomic epidemiology of bacterial and viral pathogens, from E. coli to SARS-CoV-2; Metagenomics of the mucosa-associated gut microbiome; Machine-learning classification of pediatric cancers using nanopore sequencing of full-length transcriptomes.


Alexander Rubinsteyn, PhD

July 23, 2020

Alexander Rubinsteyn, PhD

Assistant Professor of Genetics

Core Faculty
Phone: TBA | Office: 11202B Mary Ellen Jones Building
Email: alex.rubinsteyn@unc.edu | Website: https://rubinsteyn.web.unc.edu/

Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics, Computational Systems Biology
Research Interests: Machine learning for adaptive immunity, immunogenomics, and rapid vaccine design targeting cancer neoantigens and emerging pathogens.


Erin Heinzen, PhD

May 12, 2020

Erin Heinzen, PhD

Associate Professor of Genetics; Pharmacotherapy & Experimental Therapeutics

Resource Faculty
Phone: (919) 843-5981 | Office: Kerr Hall
Email: erin-h@ad.unc.edu | Website: https://pharmacy.unc.edu/research/faculty-labs/erin-heinzen/

Research Areas: Computational Genomics
Research Interests: The Heinzen Lab focuses on the genetic and genomic basis of epilepsy disorders, including analyses of the role of germline mutations, somatic mutations, and how regulation of the cellular transcriptome influences the risk and presentation of seizures.


Christoph Rau

March 11, 2020

Christoph Rau, PhD

Assistant Professor of Computational Medicine

Core Faculty
Phone: 919-962-5641 | Office: 11004B Mary Ellen Jones Building
Email: ChristophRau@unc.edu | Website: https://raulab.web.unc.edu/

Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics, Computational Systems Biology, Statistical and Population Genetics
Research Interests: The Rau lab utilizes populations of mice to study the transcriptomic and epigenomic landscape underlying cardiovascular disorders using a combination of wet and dry-lab techniques.