Chongzhi Zang Lab  

Lab Members

Principal Investigator

Chongzhi Zang, PhD

Office: West Complex, Room 6131C
Phone: 434-243-5397
Email: zang@virginia.edu
Website: czang.github.io
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Dr. Chongzhi Zang is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia School of Medicine. He holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Public Health Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and Biomedical Engineering at UVA. He is also a faculty member of the UVA Cancer Center and the UVA Data Science Institute. Chongzhi received his BS in physics from Peking University and PhD in physics from the George Washington University. He did his undergraduate research in high-field laser physics with Jie Zhang at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his PhD research in computational biophysics with Weiqun Peng and Keji Zhao at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining UVA, he completed his postdoctoral training with Xiaole Shirley Liu at Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Chongzhi is a computational biologist with expertise in cancer epigenomics. His research focuses on algorithm development for high-throughput genomic data analytics and integrative modeling of gene regulatory networks in mammalian cell systems.

Postdoctoral Associates

Zhenjia Wang, PhD

Office: West Complex, Suite 6131
Phone: 434-297-5236
Email: zhenjia@virginia.edu

Zhenjia joined the lab as a postdoctoral research associate in January 2017. She received her PhD in bioinformatics from School of Mathematics, Shandong University in China. She is working on integration of publicly available transcription factor ChIP-seq data for studying functional gene regulation, and integration of RNA-seq data with ChIP-seq data for studying mechanisms of fusion transcripts in cancer.


Sheng'en Shawn Hu, PhD

Office: West Complex, Suite 6131
Phone: 434-243-0215
Email: sh8tv@virginia.edu

Dr. Sheng'en Shawn Hu is a postdoctoral research associate starting November 2017. Before joining UVA, he completed his PhD training in bioinformatics from School of Life Science and Technology, Tongji University in China, and was a visiting student at Harvard University. He is working on developing computatinoal methodology of integrating high-throughput chromatin accessibility data for studying functional gene regulation.


Christopher Dampier, MD

Email: chd5n@virginia.edu

Chris is a General Surgery resident and a Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery and the Center for Public Health Genomics at the University of Virginia. He received his BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University and his MD from the University of Michigan. He was first exposed to informatics as a science while working as a commodities analyst at Louis Dreyfus Commodities, and he began analyzing high-dimensional bioinformatics data in the fMRI lab of Dr Jon-Kar Zubieta at the University of Michigan. He moved to Charlottesville for his residency in General Surgery and completed two years of clinical training prior to joining Dr Craig Slingluff's Surgical Oncology Training Grant under the mentorship of Dr Graham Casey in 2018. After two years of research, he will return to clinical training to complete his residency. Chris is a physician with growing expertise in bioinformatics and an interest in cancer genomics. His research focuses on molecular phenotyping and functional follow-up of GWAS-identified risk loci using high-throughput sequencing data in the setting of colorectal cancer.


Qingying Chen, PhD

Email: jkx9nz@virginia.edu

Qingying Chen joined the lab as a postdoctoral research associate in January 2021. She received her PhD in physics from the University of Tulsa and her B.S. in Applied Physics from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. Her research focused on designing, simulating, and testing the interference filters for the phonic sensing, and developing coating techniques to functionalize the integrated sensing elements. She is interested in computational biology and excited to gain experience in bioinformatics research.


William F. Lamberti, PhD

Email: william.f.lamberti@virginia.edu

William Franz Lamberti received his B.A. in Mathematical Statistics from The College of New Jersey in 2015 and his M.S. in Statistical Science from George Mason University in 2017. Before joining UVA, he received his PhD in Computational Sciences and Informatics with a specialization in Data Science from George Mason University where he was a Presidential Scholar. His current research interests include image processing applications, shape analysis, and statistical and machine learning classification problems. He is planning on incorporating skills in explainable machine learning and imaging to spatial genomics problems.


Graduate Students

Mengxue Tian

Office: West Complex, Suite 6131
Email: mt9tz@virginia.edu

Mengxue Tian is a research specialist in the lab and will start her PhD studies in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program in 2021. Before joining UVA, she received her B.E. and M.S. in Bioinformatics from School of Life Science and Technology, Tongji University in China. She is working on high-throughput sequencing data analysis over different disease and development systems.


Hongpan Zhang

Office: West Complex, Room 6131
Email: hz9fq@virginia.edu

Hongpan Zhang is a research specialist in the lab and will be a PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program starting 2021. He obtained two bachelor's degrees in life sciences and software engineering from Sichuan University. Hongpan is keen to study the connection between genomic phenomena and diseases. He hopes to raise his knowledge of biological issues in his research work. Hongpan is a basketball fan and also loves other sports events. He's interested in historical knowledge as well.


Audrey Putelo

Email: amp9cd@virginia.edu

Audrey Putelo is a first-year PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program and is doing her first rotation in the lab during Summer 2020. Audrey received her BS in Biomolecular Sciences from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in May of 2020 where she held research positions studying cancer biology and biological chemistry. She is very excited to continue her scientific endeavors at the University of Virginia and delve into the world of computational biology.



Jose Verdezoto

Email: jev4xy@virginia.edu

Jose Verdezoto is a first-year PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program doing rotation in the lab. Originally from Quito, Ecuador, he received his BS in Molecular biology and Genetics from the University of Washington, Seattle. After graduation, he worked at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for a couple of years investigating the role of nuclear lipid droplets in germline development. In order to start training in computational biology, he moved to Charlottesville and joined the lab of Dr. Nathan Sheffield at the UVA Center for Public Health Genomics. He mostly worked on developing software architecture for hosting of genomic region data as well as analysis of single cell RNA-seq data. During his graduate career, he hopes to study different ways to integrate different types of high-throughput genomics data to understand disease in a more holistic way. During his free time he loves to play/watch tennis, learn about finance and stocks trading, and watch comedy TV shows.


Jamel Simpson

Email: jws6pq@virginia.edu

Jamel Simpson is a first year Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program doing rotation in the lab. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry from UCLA. He started research in cell biology working with actin nucleator Spire, but has recently pivoted to creating computational tools to uncover the complexity of genetic disease.



Undergraduate Students

Class of 2021

Megan Grieco

Email: mg3fh@virginia.edu

Megan Grieco is a Systems Engineering major in the class of 2021, pursuing the Chemical and Biomedical application sequence. She is excited about gaining experience in data science and research within the biological field. After graduation, she is planning on going to medical school. In her free time, she likes to travel, cheer on the Hoos, and rewatch the Office.



Zack Thomas

Email: zvt3fn@virginia.edu

Zachary Thomas is an undergraduate student (Class of 2021) from Oakton, VA majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in Computer Science. He is particularly interested in data science and its applications to further explore Biomedical Data. In his free time, he plays clarinet and bass clarinet with the UVA Wind Ensemble and Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra.



Xinyue Qiu

Email: xq8zu@virginia.edu

Xinyue is an undergraduate student (Class of 2021), double majoring in Biology and Statistics. Interested in both genetics and statistical analysis, she is interested in both obtaining knowledge and rich hands-on experience related. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, traveling, drawing, and playing games.




Drew Vanichkachorn

Email: acv3by@virginia.edu

Drew Vanichkachorn is an undergraduate student (Class of 2021) in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is majoring in Global Public Health and is hopefully pursuing a BA in environmental science. Drew is excited to be learning about genomics and believes this field to be important in the future of medicine. He is also interested in music and enjoys playing the piano and viola when he can.



Shahbaz Nizam

Email: sn7mq@virginia.edu

Shahbaz Nizam is a Statistics and Economics major in the class of 2021. He is interested in learning about data science and its application with finance and marketing. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, cooking foreign cuisines, and watching movies.





Alex Hickman

Email: azh5kn@virginia.edu

Alex Hickman is a Biomedical Engineering major (Class of 2021) interested in cell and molecular biology and biomedical data science. She is looking forward to pursuing research related to computational biology and applying what she has learned from her previous research in head and neck cancer. After graduating, she hopes to attend a graduate program in computer science in order to prepare her for the world of data science! In her free time, she enjoys kayaking, biking, playing the ukulele, volunteering, and painting with Bob Ross.


Class of 2022

Benjamin Ke

Email: bgk5ck@virginia.edu

Ben Ke is an undergraduate student (Class of 2022) and intends on majoring in Statistics with a concentration in Biology. He looks forward to learning how to apply statistical, coding, and other skills from the classroom in actual research. He currently volunteers at the UVA Hospital through Madison House and enjoys playing tennis and chess in his free time. After graduation, he hopes to study in a medically-related field.



Maggie Bujor

Email: mjb6ep@virginia.edu

Maggie Bujor is a Computer Science Major in the class of 2022. She is interested in learning more about the exciting advances in computational genomics at the intersection of data science and biology. In the future, she hopes to attend medical school to become a physician. Outside of class, she is a member of Virginia Dance Company, volunteers actively through Madison House, and enjoys exploring Charlottesville and the Shenandoah.


Minaal Khan

Email: mk2te@virginia.edu

Minaal Khan is an undergraduate student (Class of 2022) double majoring in Biology and Psychology and minoring in Arabic. She is fascinated with how far technology has come and is excited to explore the intersection between data science and genetics. In her free time, Minaal volunteers at the UVA Hospital, dances with Jazba (a Bollywood dance team) and loves to travel.



Emilie Neulen

Email: ean4tp@virginia.edu

Emilie Neulen is a Biology major with a possible minor in German on the pre-med track (Class of 2022). She is extremely excited to learn more about using programming in Biology and hope to apply some of the skills she will be learning to future research. After graduating, she is planning on attending medical school. In her free time, she enjoys running, playing the violin, cooking, and volunteering at the Charlottesville SPCA.



Jasmine Dogu

Email: ejd5mm@virginia.edu

Jasmine Dogu is an undergraduate student (Class of 2022) from Fairfax, VA double majoring in Statistics and Computer Science with a possible minor in Health and Well-Being. She is interested in the development and application of data science within the medical field. She is currently involved with HackCville and theCourseForum. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, watching Ted Talks/documentaries, and volunteering in the Charlottesville Community.


Soumil Madhiwala

Email: ssm6s@virginia.edu

Soumil Madhiwala is an undergraduate student majoring in Biology and minoring in Health and Well Being. He is interested in understanding the bridge between data science and medical data and applying this knowledge in future projects. After graduating, he hopes to attend medical school. He is currently involved in Third Year Council, Indian Student Association, and is a Sports Medicine Volunteer. In his free time, he loves playing sports, photography, and being around friends.


Kuki Davey

Email: kkd7tu@virginia.edu

Kuki Davey is an undergraduate student (class of 2022) from Jacksonville, Florida, majoring in Biology with a minor in Spanish. She is pursuing research opportunities because she is interested in learning about how computer science and biology intersect and are used to further advance the medical field. She hopes to attend medical school in the future. During her free time, she enjoys volunteering, traveling, and reading.



Class of 2023

Anvitha Chimata

Email: arc6jhk@virginia.edu

Anvitha Chimata is an undergraduate student (Class of 2023) with an intended major in Statistics. She is interested in the intersection between computer science, statistics, and biology, and hopes to pursue a career in dentistry in the future. In her free time, she likes to spend time with her friends, read, and explore restaurants in Charlottesville.




Alex Li

Email: aml7hqv@virginia.edu
GitHub

Alex is an undergraduate student (Class of 2023) from Wilton, Connecticut planning on majoring in Computer Science. He's interested in machine learning and the applications of computer science to data analysis, particularly in its capability to solve pressing scientific questions. Outside of school, he likes poetry, drawing, mac and cheese, and spending time with friends.


Joe Barrett

Email: jsb8vs@virginia.edu

Joe is an undergraduate at UVA in the College of Arts and Sciences from Fauquier, VA. He is planning to major in Mathematics with a concentration in probability and statistics. The most intriguing part of research for Joe is the intersection between data and real-world applications. Outside of school, he likes fly-fishing, hiking with his dog, and he enjoys traveling to places he has not been before.



Kendall Davis

Email: kjd4pks@virginia.edu

Kendall Davis is an undergraduate student (Class of 2023) from Arlington, VA planning on majoring in Biostatistics. She’s interested in how the application of computational methods can be used to develop medical treatments. In her free time, Kendall enjoys participating in community service, exploring nature, and traveling.




Sifan Tao

Email: st5gur@virginia.edu

Sifan is an undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences (Class of 2023) majoring in Statistics and Mathematics. He's interested in the real-world application of what he has learned in class and plans to gain more experiences in research. During free time, he enjoys sports (tennis and soccer), cooking and playing games.




Aaron Mun

Email: ahm5jj@virginia.edu

Aaron is an undergraduate student (Class of 2023) from Fairfax, VA, planning on double-majoring in Biochemistry and Biostatistics with a potential minor in Bioethics. He is interested in the development and application of data science in the medical field, especially how computational methods can be applied to observe multiple health factors such as social, genetic, etc. In his free time, he likes swimming, exploring Charlottesville’s music and food scene and being with friends. He is apart of the Club Swim at UVA, PHIDE (Co-ed Pre-Medical Fraternity) and Student Council.



Class of 2024

Kamil Urbanowski

Email: ku2yb@virginia.edu

Kamil Urbanowski is an undergraduate student (Class of 2024) from Northern Virginia majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Data Science. He is passionate about exploring the intersection between machine learning and biotechnology. More specifically, Kamil is interested in understanding genetics through an engineering lens. He hopes to attend graduate school and one day work on developing innovations in healthcare and beyond. In his leisure time, Kamil enjoys reading fiction books, playing basketball, traveling, and watching new movies. He is also a member of the Mechatronics and Robotics Society (MARS) at UVA.


Sydney Saviano

Email: scs8kcb@virginia.edu

Sydney Saviano is an undergraduate student (Class or 2024) from Westchester, New York majoring in global public health or mathematics on the pre-med track. She is interested in seeing how data science and biology can work hand in hand to further advance the medical field. In her free time, she volunteers through Madison House, and is a member of the club squash team and Woody-Cauthen association student council organization.


Lab Alumni

Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students

Visting Scholars and Students


We are recruiting!

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The Zang lab is recruiting motivated students and scholars to work on various topics in computational biology in a collaborative research team. Postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students are all welcome. Please visit Positions page for details.

Last modified: January 22, 2021