Li’s Biography

I am a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Harrison School of Pharmacy at Auburn University. I am a member of The Omics and Informatics Cluster Hire in Auburn University. I received a BS from China majoring in Bioinformatics in 2009; a MHS in Biostatistics in 2011, from the Johns Hopkins University; another MSE in Computer Science in 2011, from the Johns Hopkins University. I joined the department right after obtaining my PhD in Computer Science and Informatics at Emory University in 2017. I also interned in CareerBuilder Data Science and Amazon Machine Learning in Summer 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Research

I mainly work on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. To be specific, my research focuses on the development of statistical and informatics methods for the analysis of high-throughput genetic/genomic, epigenomics and other omics data, summarized in the following areas.

• Epigenomics: Develop statistical methods and database for epigenomic data in differential biological conditions.
  • Differential binding. [Link to ChIPComp]
  • Database and web server. [Link to hmChIP]
• Genetics: Develop computational methods for annotating and predicting functional variants (GWAS SNPs, cis-eQTL SNVs) by utilizing large-scale multi-omics profiles.
  • GWAS variant enrichment analysis. [traseR]
  • Functional variant prediction. [DIVAN]; (https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/advance-article/doi/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty872/5126236). [TIVAN]
• Metagenomics: Develop statistical methods for predictive modeling disease status based on 16S rRNA sequencing microbiome data.
  • Normalization. [GMPR]
  • Power analysis. [powmic]
  • Predictive modeling. [glmgraph] ; (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.03112/abstract). [SICS]; (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01391/abstract). [glmmTree]
• Single-cell genomics: Develop statistical methods for clustering single cell data.
  • Clustering droplet-based single cell transcriptomic data from population studies. [BAMMSC]
• Transcriptomics: Develop statistical methods for non-coding RNA.
  • Genomic feature annotation and differential expression analysis of circular RNAs. [circMeta]

Contact

Li Chen
Department: Health Outcomes Research and Policy
Auburn University
Harrison School of Pharmacy
4306f Walker Building
Auburn, AL 36849
USA

Email: li.chen@auburn.edu