Faculty
Faculty members involved with the Bioinformatics and Genomics graduate program are at the vanguard of research in the biological sciences. Hailing from more than a dozen departments across Penn State, these faculty advisers collaborate to conduct research and to train graduate students. The community they have created provides a positive, collaborative environment that helps to position graduate students for career success.
Istvan Albert
Research Professor of Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics, large scale biological data analysis, microarrays and sequence analysis. Scientific programming, algorithm development. Database-driven web development.
Reka Albert
Distinguished Professor of Physics and Biology
Biological physics and network modeling.
Sally Assmann
Waller Professor of Biology
Molecular biology of plant G-proteins and kinases. Phytohormone regulation of signal transduction and RNA processing. Second messenger regulation of ion channels in plant cells.
Michael Axtell
Professor of Biology; Louis and Hedwig Sternberg Chair in Plant Biology
Discovery and characterization of plant microRNAs and siRNAs. Functions of microRNAs and siRNAs in the evolution of plant development. Genomics and bioinformatics of microRNAs, siRNAs, and their targets
Lu Bai
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Professor of Physics
Single cell / single molecule study of chromatin and gene regulation.
Le Bao
Professor of Statistics
Bayesian methods, data mining, computational methods, applications in health, environmental and social sciences.
Colin Barnstable
Professor and Chair of Neural Behavioral Sciences
How interacting networks of transcription factors and signal transduction molecules guide the development of precursor/stem cells into mature neurons. Role of these networks in neurodegenerative diseases. Factors that can act as neuroprotective agents.
Arthur Berg
Professor of Public Health Sciences, Statistics, Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Family & Community Medicine
Unlocking the mysteries of DNA and its connection to human health.
Philip Bevilacqua
Co-Director, Center for RNA Molecular Biology; Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
RNA folding in vivo and genome-wide; RNA regulation of gene expression; Ribozyme Mechanism; roles RNA may have played in the emergence of life on early earth
Seth Bordenstein
Director of the One Health Microbiome Center; Huck Chair in Microbiome Sciences; Professor of Biology and Entomology
The evolutionary and genetic principles that shape symbiotic interactions between animals, microbes, and viruses and the major applications of these interactions to human health.
James Broach
Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Liana Burghardt
Director of the Center for Root and Rhizosphere Biology; Huck Early Career Chair of Root Biology and Rhizosphere Interactions; Assistant Professor of Plant Science
Plant-microbe-climate interactions; the evolution and ecology of legumes and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia; the genomic basis and environment dependence of root, nodule, and mutualism traits; GWAS/transcriptomics/evolve & resequence methodologies
Laura Carrel
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Genetic, epigenetic, and genomic regulation of expression on the mammalian X chromosome.
Keith Cheng
Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and of Pharmacology
Computational phenomics, image informatics, and "Geometry of Life" based on x-ray histotomography, population, genomic, and functional genomic analyses of complex traits in human and zebrafish; web-based science resources.
Francesca Chiaromonte
Director of the Genome Sciences Institute; Huck Chair in Statistics for the Life Sciences; Professor of Statistics
Developing methods for the analysis of large, high-dimensional and complex data.
Surinder Chopra
Professor of Maize Genetics
Regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis during plant development and plant-pathogen interaction. Epigenetic regulation and allele specific patterns.
Emily Davenport
Assistant Professor of Biology
Understanding the complex relationship humans have with our microbiomes, using high-throughput sequencing technologies and novel computational and statistical techniques.
Claude dePamphilis
Director of the Center for Parasitic and Carnivorous Plants; Huck Distinguished Chair in Plant Biology and Evolutionary Genomics; Professor of Biology
Genomics, bioinformatics, and molecular evolution. Origin and diversification of flowers and developmental pathways. Comparative genomics of plants, organelles, and plant gene families. Genomics, evolution, and functional biology of parasitic plants.
Nikolay Dokholyan
G. Thomas Passananti Professor of Pharmacology; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
We are a translational systems research group in the Pharmacology at the Penn State College of Medicine. Our laboratory focuses on understanding etiologies of human diseases, such as cystic fibrosis (CF), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and pain conditions, such as hyperalgesia.