Dr. Deyou Zheng

The research field of our group is Computational Genomics and Bioinformatics, with a strong focus of mining large-scale high-throughput genomic data. We develop and apply computational techniques for integrating data of comparative genomics and functional genomics to study the structure, function, and dynamic of the human genome. In one direction, we investigate the emergence and subsequent evolution of species-specific genomic sequences; in the other, we study the complexity and dynamics of gene regulatory networks. The long-term goal and significance of our research program is to gain biological insights to the fundamental regulatory networks directing the developments of individual human tissues or organs (e.g., neurogenesis), and the genomic disorders and regulatory dysfunctions that are often associated with a variety of human diseases (e.g., neurodegenerative diseases).

Selected Publications:

Zheng D, Zhao K, Mehler M. (2009) Profiling RE1/REST-mediated Histone Modifications in the Human Genome. Genome Biol 10:R9. (*corresponding author)

Zheng D. (2008) Gene Duplication in the Epigenomic Era: roles of chromatin modifications. Epigenetics 3:250-3.

Zheng D. (2008) Asymmetric Histone Modifications between the Original and Derived Loci of Human Segmental Duplications. Genome Biol 9:R105.

Zheng D, Gerstein M. (2007) The Ambiguous Boundary between Genes and Pseudogenes: the dead rise up, or do they? Trends Genet 23: 219-24.

The ENCODE Project Consortium. (2007) Identification and Analysis of Functional Elements in 1% of the Human Genome by the ENCODE Pilot Project. Nature 447: 799-816.

Gerstein M, Zheng D. (2006) The Real Life of Pseudogenes. Scientific American 295:48-55.