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Dapeng Zhang, Ph.D. (C.V.)
Associate Professor Department of Biology, Program of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, College of Arts & Sciences Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63103, USA Phone: 314-977-4092 E-mail: dapeng.zhang AT slu.edu My SLU departmental page Google Scholar page |
Research Interests:
We are interested in using Bioinformatics, Genomics, Evolutionary Theory, and Machine Learning techniques to address various biological and health-related questions, including:
Research Interests:
We are interested in using Bioinformatics, Genomics, Evolutionary Theory, and Machine Learning techniques to address various biological and health-related questions, including:
- Molecular mechanisms underlying biological conflicts, such as host-pathogen interactions, genetic conflicts, cell-cell interactions, and diseases in humans, animals, and plants. The focused systems include polymorphic toxin/effector systems, DNA modification systems, bacterial anti-phage effector systems, and eukaryotic immune systems.
- Diversification mechanisms of biomolecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
- Antibiotic resistance and machine learning-based predictions.
- Protein domain classification and function prediction.
- Development of novel bioinformatics and machine learning methods, as well as specialized databases.
Lab News:
- Our work on the identification of Ribonuclease T2 being a distinct version of the BECR fold nucleases was published in Protein Science! Congratulations to all!
- Our recent work on comparative genomics of Huanglongbing-associated bacteria was accepted by Microbiology Spectrum in August 2021. Congratulations to all involves!
- In our recent work, we identified many distinct ion channel proteins in coronaviruses and other nidoviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 Matrix protein (M). The manuscript will be published in Virus Evolution.
- Great news in 2020: Theresa was admitted to Drexel University Medical school and Cindy Wang was admitted to Harvard University!
- We presented our work on comparative genomic analysis of Citrus Huanglongbing-associated bacteria at both the Plant Biology 2020 and the Plant Health 2020 meetings in July and August 2020. Thanks Yongjun and Cindy for their hard work!
- Our recent work on functional prediction of SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 protein was accepted by mBio on May 8, 2020. Thank you for all the hard work, Yongjun, Theresa, Matthew, and Aravind!
- In the first half of 2019, we have four collaborative papers published in PNAS, mBio, Physiol Genomics, and Plos One. Congratulations to all involved!
- On March 22, 2019, Theresa won the top prize (the Keath Undergraduate Research Award) in Biology Undergraduate Poster Presentation Competition. Good job Theresa!
- In September 2018, a collaborative work on neurodegenerative disease SCA3 was published in Plos ONE. Great gene expression data from our collaborators!
- In August 2018, Yongjun Tan from Southern Medical University joined the lab as a PhD student. Welcome Yongjun!
- In June 2018, Dapeng Zhang served as the moderator at the ASM Microbe 2018 symposium focusing on “Discovering molecular systems and mechanisms in biological conflicts” and gave a talk on bacterial polymorphic toxin systems
Research Opportunities:
I am recruiting graduate students to join my group at St. Louis University. Students who have biology, mathematics, computer science, or chemistry backgrounds and wish to conduct research on Bioinformatics, Evolution, Genomics, Structure and Database are welcome to apply. For application details, please visit Biology Graduate Program website and University Graduate Student Admission website. Please feel free to contact me by email if you are interested or have any questions.
I am recruiting graduate students to join my group at St. Louis University. Students who have biology, mathematics, computer science, or chemistry backgrounds and wish to conduct research on Bioinformatics, Evolution, Genomics, Structure and Database are welcome to apply. For application details, please visit Biology Graduate Program website and University Graduate Student Admission website. Please feel free to contact me by email if you are interested or have any questions.
