Bio

I am a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, and a member of NC State Bioinformatics Research Center. I received my PhD in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics from the University of Tennessee – Oak Ridge National Laboratory Graduate School of Genome Science and Technology, under Computer Science Professor Dr. Michael Langston. I started as a Bioinformatics Manager at Seattle BioMed (now Center for Global Infectious Disease Research) after graduation. In 2008 I joined the University of Washington Department of Microbiology as a Computational Research Scientist, and was promoted to a Research Assistant Professor in 2012. I moved here at NC State in July 2016 as one of the Dean’s Faculty Excellence cluster hires, in the field of “Translational Genomics of Infectious Diseases,” and to be part of the Bioinformatics Research Center.

Publications

• Assessment and development of computational strategies for assembling the human FCGR2/3 locus using Nanopore long-read sequencing data 2309911 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Characterization of H1N1 and interferon-β-responsive long non-coding RNAs using single-cell CRISPRi in human lung epithelial and immune cell lines 2260688 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Development of genomic resources and assays for immune repertoire profiling in Syrian hamsters , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Exploring gut host—microbiome interactions associated with RhCMV/SIV vaccine efficacy against SIV in rhesus macaques 2257552 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Identification of functional noncoding variants regulating Fc gamma receptor expression in human natural killer cells 2260713 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Identification of lncRNA VILMIR-protein interactions within the host interferon response 2257841 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Investigating Functional Mechanisms of Noncoding Genetic Variations in the Human Fc Gamma Receptor Locus 2260728 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Leveraging Advances In Long-Read Sequencing to Improve Analysis of Host Immune Responses 2332674 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Pilot study of gestational PFAS exposure on child blood transcriptional profiles 2259999 , The Journal of Immunology (2026)
• Selective impact on regulatory T cells with sustained functional phenotypes by the interleukin-2 mutein VIS171 in a nonhuman primate model , American Journal of Transplantation (2026)