Home              Research              People              Publications              Software              Computers              Positions              Contact


Our ongoing omics research










Myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) statistics and facts
  • ~20 million worldwide
  • 1–2.5 million and costs $17–24 billion/yr in the USA alone
  • More common than multiple sclerosis, lung cancer or AIDS: twice as common as multiple sclerosis
  • No diagnostic test
  • No FDA-approved treatments
  • No cure


Addiction

One in every four people has one brain behavioral diagnosis in their lifetime. Our goal is to use  brain behavioral disease phenome and omics data to identify new risk factors that has the potential for prevention and new treatment.




High-throughput sequencing analyses

We perform various standard deep sequencing analyses, including SNP-disease association, DNA methylation, differential gene expression and other analyses.





Mosaic viral integrations in blood/brain genomes

We will continue to develop bioinformatics platforms for genotyping endogenous retroviruses and other transposable elements, and mosaic “non-human-sequence” insertions using long reads and single-cell sequencing, and ultra-deep sequencing.






Translational medicine

We are also interested to transition our research towards personalized genomics and medicine.







****Bioinformatics Recruitment****

Bioinformatics Postdoctoral Fellows & Graduate Students

We are recruiting Postdoctoral Associate & Graduate Students in bioinformatics and genomics. The positions are available immediately. To apply, please kindly send CV to Dawei:








Lab news

Dates Items
2020Our paper "Sequencing facility and DNA source associated patterns of reads mappable to viruses in whole-genome sequencing data" has been in press in Genomics.
2020.07.20Sen Guo, a computational biologist, has joined our lab as a research scientist on genomics and bioinformatics. Welcome Sen!
2020.04.27Sophie Kogut presented in the University of Vermont Student Research Conference. Once again, she won a competitive Award with cash prize (she is a top five with only 16 students selected among all UVM students). Congratulations!
2020.02.08Sophie Kogut, a UVM undergraduate doing her thesis in our lab, won the award for best undergraduate poster and a check at the 2020 University of Vermont Neuroscience, Behavior and Health Forum! Congratulations!
2020.02.03Xugang Shi, enrolled in a PhD program in genetics at Xi'an Jiaotong University, has joined our lab for genetics and bioinformatics research.Welcome Xugang!
2019.12.31Special request for colleagues and friends who know Arvis Sulovari, our former PhD student in our lab. Arvis created a GoFundMe link for his mom who is suffering from late-stage cancer. Please check this link and consider helping him! Any amount will help. The link is here. Thanks to everyone!
2019.11.15Younes Shafter, M.S, is joining our lab as a new Ph.D student for his Ph.D thesis research starting from Fall 2020. Younes is from the Interdisciplinary program in Computer Science. Younes is interested in bioinformatics. Welcome Younes!
2019Our paper "ERVcaller: Identifying polymorphic endogenous retrovirus and other transposable element insertions using whole-genome sequencing data" has been in press in Bioinformatics.
2019
Our paper "A virome-wide clonal integration analysis platform for discovering viral etiology" has been in press in Genome Research.
2019Our paper "VIpower: Simulation-based tool for estimating power of viral integration detection via high-throughput sequencing" has been published in Genomics.
2018.8.8Our paper "Comprehensive comparative analysis of methods and software for identifying viral integrations" has been published in Briefings in Bioinformatics.
2018.1.26Our first (mini-review) paper on cancer viral etiology: "Searching for human oncoviruses: histories, challenges, and opportunities" has been accepted for publish.
2017.7.19 Congratulations to Xun. Xun received an ASHG/Charles J. Epstein Trainee Award for Excellence in Human Genetics Research from The American Society of Human Genetics.
2017.6.14 Congratulations to Arvis!! Arvis has defended successfully and obtained his PHD.
2017.6.12 Daniel Brooks, a UVM undergraduate student with double majors in Molecular Genetics and in Microbiology and minor in Computer Science, joins in our lab for research. Welcome!
2017.6.7 Congratulations to Arvis. His CNV paper titled "Genome-wide meta-analysis of copy number variations (CNVs) with alcohol dependence" is accepted by Pharmacogenomics Journal!
2017.4.28 Acadia Moeyersoms, a Biochemistry undergraduate student who have been conducting research in our lab, successfully defended her Honors Thesis.
2017.1.23-27 Michael Mariani was awarded a competitive scholarship from The Rockefeller University, and attended an Advanced Gene Mapping Course in New York City.
2016.10.11 A big welcome to Michael Mariani! Mike has joined our lab for his Ph.D. Outside of his study here, Mike is a Black Belt Karater!
2016.09.27 Our manuscript "Atlas of human diseases influenced by genetic variants with extreme allele frequency differences" has been accepted for publication in Human Genetics. Congratulations to Arvis, the first author in this paper!
2016.07.30 Michael Mariani joins our lab for his rotation research. Mike is a incoming second-year Ph.D student in the Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences (CMB) Graduate Program. Let's give him a warm welcome!
2016.03.07
 Jason Kost has joined our lab as a full-time volunteer computational geneticist. Kost obtained his M.S. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2015. Welcome!
2015.12.13 David Miserak has joined our lab as a full-time volunteer software engineer. Welcome!
2015.04.02Our manuscript "Eye Color: A Potential Indicator of Alcohol Dependence Risk in European Americans" has been accepted for publication in American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. Congratulations to Arvis, the first author in this paper!
2014.12.05Arvis is invited to give a research talk in the UVM CMB Graduate Students Recruitment, as the invitation letter describes: "...Arvis, you were specifically selected for this role because we would like to showcase the research from some of our most successful graduate students...". Congratulations to Arvis!
2014.10.13Guangchen Liu joins our lab. Guangchen is a Ph.D candidate in Probability and Mathematical Statistics from China. Welcome to the UVM!
2014.10.01Dr. Xun Chen joins our lab. Dr. Chen received his Ph.D in 2014. Warm welcome!
2014.08.26Our new study of genome-wide copy number variation is accepted by Neuropsychopharmacology.
2014.08.25Brian Lynch, a senior in Microbiology, joins our lab as a research student. Welcome Brian!
2014.07.16Congratulations to Arvis, who has passed his "Ph.D. Qualifying Examination" and become a "Ph.D Candidate".
2014.07.10Congratulations to Arvis, whose paper is accepted by BMC Genomics. Arvis is the first-author in this paper.
2014.06.05 Our lab is featured by "Lab Spotlight" on UVM CMB graduate program webpage.
2014.05.21 Braeden Hughes, a student from Macalester College, join our lab for summer research. 
2014.01.24 Robert Bachman, a UVM Senior in Molecular Genetics, joins our lab as a research student. A warm welcome!
2014.01.20 Robert Howe, a UVM Senior in Biochemistry and Computer Science (double major), joins our lab for research. A warm welcome!
2013.10.10 Our manuscript is accepted by Neuropsychopharmacology. Arvis is a major contributor in this paper.
2013.09.05 Our offices move to the Hills Building.
2013.07.16 Congratulations to Arvis, who is awarded a training scholarship in statistical genetics from University of Washington. He will stay in Seattle for two weeks.
2013.07.01 Dawei Li is appointed as assistant professor (secondary) with The Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.
2013.05.28 A big welcome to Arvis Sulovari! Arvis has joined our lab for his Ph.D. Arvis graduated from Dartmouth College three years ago, and dedicated the following two years in a genetics laboratory at Dartmouth before joining us.
2013.03.19 One manuscript is accepted by Neuropsychopharmacology. Investigators from University of Vermont, Fletcher Allen Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families, and Yale University are involved in this study.
2013.03.08 Kelly Nguyen, a UVM Honors College Junior in Molecular Genetics, joins our lab for her thesis research. A warm welcome!
2013.01.14 Arvis Sulovari joins our lab for his rotation research. Arvis is a first-year Ph.D student in the Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences (CMB) Graduate Program. Let's give him a warm welcome!
2013.01.03 Roman Popov joins our lab for his first rotation. Roman is a first-year Ph.D student in Neuroscience Graduate Program. Let's give him a warm welcome!
2012.12.28 Our manuscript is accepted by Human Genetics.
2012.12.21 Our manuscript is accepted by The American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. Emily LaRocque, who used to be a part-time research student in our laboratory at UVM and now in Maryland, is the second author in this paper. 
2012.10.01 Emily LaRocque joins our laboratory on a part-time basis to help in a genetics project related to selected candidate genes with substance use disorders. Emily is a UVM premed postbac. Let's give a warm welcome!
2012.09.01 Dawei Li joins the faculty of University of Vermont (UVM). We start our new laboratory on UVM campus.




Support

Our research has been supported through funding from the following agencies as well as from private donors.


funders



For suggestions, questions, problems, contact the webmaster.
Copyright 2020 University of Vermont.