Laura Ferguson, PhD
Laura Ferguson, PhD
Assistant Professor of
Pharmacology and Psychiatry
Core Faculty
Phone: 919-445-3862 | Office: Thurston-Bowles Building, Room 3027A
Email: laura_ferguson@med.unc.edu | Website: https://tarheels.live/fergusonlab/
Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics, Computational Systems Biology, Statistical and Population Genetics
Research Interests: My lab uses computational, molecular, and behavioral approaches to identify biomarkers and mechanistic pathways underlying alcohol use disorder and related behavioral and neuropsychiatric conditions. We integrate omics data, cross-species studies, and computational modeling to inform therapeutic strategies.
Jonathan B. Parr, MD, MPH
Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of
Medicine
Resource Faculty
Phone: (919) 445-1132 | Office: 8312A Medical Biomolecular Research Building
Email: jonathan_parr@med.unc.edu | Website: http://www.ideelresearch.org/
Research Areas: Comparative Genomics and Molecular Evolution, Statistical and Population Genetics
Research Interests: The Parr laboratory conducts applied, translational research on the molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases, with a focus on malaria. We work closely with international partners to use cutting-edge sequencing approaches in order to study pathogen evolution and inform policy decisions.
Fei Zou, PhD
Fei Zou, PhD
Professor of
Biostatistics
Faculty
Phone: (919) 843-4822 | Office: 4115-C McGavran-Greenberg Hall
Email: fzou@bios.unc.edu | Website: https://www.bios.unc.edu/~feizou/
Research Areas: Statistical and Populational Genetics
Research Interests: Dr. Zou’s research interests lie in the development and examination of the theoretical methodologies and statistical properties appropriate for the interpretation of genetic data.
Parul Johri
Parul Johri, PhD
Assistant Professor of
Biology and Genetics
Core Faculty
Phone: 919-843-7700 | Office: 3157 Genome Sciences Building
Email: pjohri@unc.edu | Website: https://www.johrilab.org/
Research Areas: Population Genetics, Evolutionary Genomics, Statistical Inference
Research Interests: Our lab is interested in how evolutionary processes like changes in population size, recombination rate, direct and indirect effects of selection, and factors such as genome architecture shape patterns of genomic variation. Work in the lab involves employing computational, theoretical, and statistical approaches, including method development, to perform evolutionary inference and ask fundamental questions in population genetics. Areas of research: inference of selection and demography, evolution of gene duplicates, and population genetics in unicellular pathogenic species.
Tarek Zikry
Tarek Zikry, PhD
Assistant Professor of
School of Data Science and Society (Starting July 2025)
Core Faculty
Phone: N/A | Office: ITS Manning School of Data Science and Society
Email: tarek@unc.edu | Website: http://www.zikrylab.com/
Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics, Computational Systems Biology, Statistical and Population Genetics
Research Interests: I am interested in the intersection of precision medicine and and data science, specifically topics in dimensionality reduction, single-cell omics, and statistical machine learning across applications in cancer, neuroscience, and public health.
Daiwei (David) Zhang
Daiwei (David) Zhang, PhD
Assistant Professor of
Biostatistics and Genetics
Core Faculty
Phone: (919) 966-7281 | Office: 3107E McGavran-Greenberg Hall
Email: daiwei_zhang@med.unc.edu | Website: https://sph.unc.edu/adv_profile/david-zhang/
Research Areas: Image Analysis, Computational Genomics, Statistical and Population Genetics, Bioinformatics
Research Interests: My research focuses on developing novel artificial intelligence / machine learning frameworks to advance critical biomedical and health care domains, including spatial omics, computational pathology, medical imaging and text analysis.
Sarah Linnstaedt, PhD
Sarah Linnstaedt, PhD
Associate Professor of
Anesthesiology
Resource Faculty
Phone: 919-966-5136 | Office: 120 Taylor Hall
Email: sarah_linnstaedt@med.unc.edu | Website: https://www.med.unc.edu/anesthesiology/research/linnstaedt-lab/
Research Areas: Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics, Computational Systems Biology, Statistical and Population Genetics
Research Interests: We are interested in understanding the recovery process following traumatic stress exposures and use large-scale molecular and genetic human cohort data from trauma survivors to better understand risk factors and mechanisms driving adverse outcomes such as chronic pain, posttraumatic stress, and depression.
Xihao Li, PhD
Xihao Li, PhD
Assistant Professor of
Biostatistics & Genetics
Core Faculty
Phone: (919) 843-3656* | Office: 4115D McGavran-Greenberg Hall*
Email: xihaoli@unc.edu | Website: https://xihaoli.org
Research Areas: Bioinformatics; Statistical and Population Genetics
Research Interests: My research interests lie in developing novel statistical methods and computational tools that (1) enable scalable and integrative analysis of large-scale whole-genome/whole-exome sequencing (WGS/WES) data and multi-omics data, (2) empower meta-analysis of large-scale sequencing data of ancestrally-diverse consortiums and biobanks, and (3) prioritize putative causal genetic variants using functional annotation data to better understand the relationships among genomic variation, genome function, and phenotypes.
Qingyun Liu, PhD
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.
Laura Raffield, PhD
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.