The Faculty

Focus

Computational analysis and method development in human genetics and genomics

Biography

University of Science and Technology of China, B.S. in Biology, 1999

Loyola University of Chicago, M.S. in Computer Science, 2003

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ph.D. in Computer Science, 2009

University of California at San Francisco, Postdoc Scholar, 2009-2011

Carnegie Mellon University, Lane Fellow of Computational Biology, 2011-2014

University of Chicago, Assistant Professor, 2014-present

Courses Taught

HGEN 471: Introductory Statistical Genetics

HGEN 488: Fundamentals of Computational Biology: Algorithms and Applications

Research Interests

My lab uses computational approaches to study the genetics of human diseases, including cancer. A primary focus of our research is to develop novel tools for mapping risk genes of complex diseases from genome wide association studies (GWAS), sequencing studies or somatic mutations in the case of cancer. These tools are often been used in close collaboration with experimental biologists. A key feature of our strategy is the integration of multiple genomic datasets, such as transcriptome data, epigenetic data, and biological networks. This integrated approach could combine signals in different datasets to increase the power of studies, and shed light on the mechanism connecting genetic changes to phenotypes. We are also interested in computational questions in regulatory genomics. How do cis-regulatory sequences interpret the information in cellular environments to drive spatial-temporal gene expression patterns? How do variations of regulatory sequences shape phenotypic variation and evolution? We believe a better understanding of these questions will also help the study of human genetics, specifically by improving our ability to interpret variations in non-coding sequences.

Selected Publications

Zhang S, Zhang H, Zhou Y, Qiao M, Zhao S, Kozlova A, Shi J, Sanders AR, Wang G, Luo K, Sengupta S, West S, Qian S, Streit M, Avramopoulos D, Cowan CA, Chen M, Pang ZP, Gejman PV, He X, Duan J. Allele-specific open chromatin in human iPSC neurons elucidates functional disease variants. Science. 2020 07 31; 369(6503):561-565. 

Zhang Z, Luo K, Zou Z, Qiu M, Tian J, Sieh L, Shi H, Zou Y, Wang G, Morrison J, Zhu AC, Qiao M, Li Z, Stephens M, He X, He C. Genetic analyses support the contribution of mRNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification to human disease heritability. Nat Genet. 2020 09; 52(9):939-949. 

Nguyen TH, Dobbyn A, Brown RC, Riley BP, Buxbaum JD, Pinto D, Purcell SM, Sullivan PF, He X, Stahl EA. mTADA is a framework for identifying risk genes from de novo mutations in multiple traits. Nat Commun. 2020 06 10; 11(1):2929. 

Morrison J, Knoblauch N, Marcus JH, Stephens M, He X. Mendelian randomization accounting for correlated and uncorrelated pleiotropic effects using genome-wide summary statistics. Nat Genet. 2020 07; 52(7):740-747

Zhao S, Liu J, Nanga P, Liu Y, Cicek AE, Knoblauch N, He C, Stephens M, He X. Detailed modeling of positive selection improves detection of cancer driver genes. Nat Commun. 2019 07 30; 10(1):3399. 

Liu Y, Liang Y, Cicek AE, Li Z, Li J, Muhle RA, Krenzer M, Mei Y, Wang Y, Knoblauch N, Morrison J, Zhao S, Jiang Y, Geller E, Ionita-Laza I, Wu J, Xia K, Noonan JP, Sun ZS, He X. A Statistical Framework for Mapping Risk Genes from De Novo Mutations in Whole-Genome-Sequencing Studies. Am J Hum Genet. 2018 06 07; 102(6):1031-1047. 

Sanders SJ, He X, Willsey AJ, Ercan-Sencicek AG, Samocha KE, Cicek AE, Murtha MT, Bal VH, Bishop SL, Dong S, Goldberg AP, Jinlu C, Keaney JF, Klei L, Mandell JD, Moreno-De-Luca D, Poultney CS, Robinson EB, Smith L, Solli-Nowlan T, Su MY, Teran NA, Walker MF, Werling DM, Beaudet AL, Cantor RM, Fombonne E, Geschwind DH, Grice DE, Lord C, Lowe JK, Mane SM, Martin DM, Morrow EM, Talkowski ME, Sutcliffe JS, Walsh CA, Yu TW. Insights into Autism Spectrum Disorder Genomic Architecture and Biology from 71 Risk Loci. Neuron. 2015 Sep 23; 87(6):1215-1233. 

De Rubeis S, He X, Goldberg AP, Poultney CS, Samocha K, Cicek AE, Kou Y, Liu L, Fromer M, Walker S, Singh T, Klei L, Kosmicki J, Shih-Chen F, Aleksic B, Biscaldi M, Bolton PF, Brownfeld JM, Cai J, Campbell NG, Carracedo A, Chahrour MH, Chiocchetti AG, Coon H, Crawford EL, Curran SR, Dawson G, Duketis E, Fernandez BA, Gallagher L, Geller E, Guter SJ, Hill RS, Ionita-Laza J, Jimenz Gonzalez P, Kilpinen H, Klauck SM, Kolevzon A, Lee I, Lei I, Lei J, Lehtimäki T, Lin CF, Ma'ayan A, Marshall CR, McInnes AL, Neale B, Owen MJ, Ozaki N, Parellada M, Parr JR, Purcell S, Puura K, Rajagopalan D, Rehnström K, Reichenberg A, Sabo A, Sachse M, Sanders SJ, Schafer C, Schulte-Rüther M, Skuse D, Stevens C, Szatmari P, Tammimies K, Valladares O, Voran A, Li-San W, Weiss LA, Willsey AJ, Yu TW, Yuen RK. Synaptic, transcriptional and chromatin genes disrupted in autism. Nature. 2014 Nov 13; 515(7526):209-15. 

BPHYS Students

Alan Selewa

Yifan Zhou