Elisabeth Paymal

Thursday, May 15, 2025, Yueyang Shen defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled “Complex time representation and observability of repeated measurement processes with applications of spacekime analytics.” His mentor was professor Ivo Dinov.

Thomas Chen, M.S., graduated in Spring 2025 from the Gilbert S. Omenn Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics (DCMB) with a Master's in Science degree. He started his bioinformatics studies at U-M as a senior student majoring in Microbiology, and attended DCMB’s Accelerated MS program. In June 2025, he will pursue his training to become a scientist-physician at the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program.

On April 10, 2025, the Center for Data-Driven Drug Development and Treatment Assessment (DATA), an NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC), held its third Spring meeting, in Ann Arbor, MI. Hosted at the University of Michigan (U-M), DATA creates and fosters scientific partnerships between industry, government, and academia, focusing on drug discovery that is based on data and tools such as modeling, AI and machine learning.

Have you ever wondered about the hidden microbial world inside your gut? Dive into the fascinating study of the molecules that fuel our energy or learn how a high fiber diet can do wonders for your gut. From the life-saving early detection of colon cancer to finding possible treatments for inflammatory bowel diseases and C diff. infection, M&I cutting-edge research is transforming our understanding of the biology that impacts our health and is shaping the future of healthcare.

With support from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation Career-Starter Research Grant, Fengrong Wang, Ph.D., will focus her research on the molecular biology underlying long-term infection from the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, and for which there is currently no treatment.

On March 21, 2025, Jialin Liu, Ph.D., defended his doctoral dissertation titled “Mapping Cell Fate Transitions from Single-Cell Multi-Omic and Spatial Transcriptomic Data.” His mentor was professor Joshua Welch, Associate Professor in the Gilbert S. Omenn Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics (DCMB) and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Darian Santana, Ph.D., received the Department of Microbiology and Immunology (M&I) 2024 MacNeal Award for his Ph.D. dissertation titled “A Candida auris-specific adhesin, Scf1, governs surface association, colonization, and virulence."

Diya Kannappan is a first-year undergraduate student in LSA who also participates in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). She is a trainee in the Athey lab, where she learns to evaluate the accuracy of the algorithm used in the first step of single-molecule sequencing. This work will be used to assess the effectiveness of Tamoxifen, a drug commonly used to treat breast cancer. Her training includes AI and machine learning application to enhance predictions for Tamoxifen dosing in breast cancer patients.

Dulce is expanding her doctoral interest in phylogenetics to include more applicable research. She is studying microbiome interactions and bacteria communication in marine organisms. She is researching metabolites that can communicate with the host cells to understand why some host cells let particular bacteria colonize them.

Ande Garretto, Ph.D., studied how toxins produced by a bacteria, or bacteriocins, might influence the competition between bacteria in the human gut microbiome.

On February 26, 2925, in a room filled with DCMB students, five panelists presented about their career choices. They were:    •    Gabrielle Dotson, Ph.D., Computational Biology Scientist at bit.bio    •    Hani Habra, Ph.D., Michigan State University    •    Douglas Maldonado-Torres, M.S, Bioinformatician at Michigan Department of Health & Human Services    •    Stephanie Thiede, Ph.D., Senior Computational Biologist II at Tempus AI    •    Calin Voichita, Ph.D., Senior Software Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The Carol Hollenshead Inspire Award for Excellence in Promoting Equity and Social Change recognizes faculty, staff and students — either an individual or a group — who have proven that social change is possible through persistent hard work and who demonstrate that one person can make a lasting difference in their communities. Girls Who Code was founded at U-M in 2017 by doctoral students in the Medical School’s Gilbert S. Omenn Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics.

Pariyamon (Pha) Thaprawat defended her thesis titled “Toxoplasma gondii Autophagy and Chronic Infection” on November 2, 2024. She received her Ph.D. summa cum laude under the mentorship of Vern Carruthers.

DCMB celebrates the professional achievements and retirement of Mary Freer, its Chief Department Administrator. With an impressive 35 years of service at Michigan Medicine, Freer has brought dedication and expert management to every role she has undertaken. Freer has touched the lives of many in the institution, striving to bring the best in everyone, fostering warm and supportive relationships, and demonstrating an unwavering commitment to Michigan Medicine’s values.

Elliott SoRelle, Ph.D., is joining M&I as a new Assistant Professor, effective October 1, 2024.