Faculty and Staff
Experimental Team
Phil Lorenzi, Ph.D.
Core Director
Associate Professor, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
My background and training are in chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Our laboratory focuses on the development of metabolic therapies for the treatment of cancer, and we collaborate with more than 200 investigators per year on projects that span the continuum of life science research and drug development. I meet with investigators to plan their experiments and assist with data analysis and interpretation.
Waikin Chan, Ph.D.
Principal Research Scientist and Biology Team Leader
I obtained my Ph.D. in molecular biology from UTHealth Houston in 2006. I joined the laboratory of Drs. Weinstein and Lorenzi in 2010. I have more than over 20 years of research experience with various topics in cancer biology, RNA biology, telomere biology, and metabolomics. My research interest focuses on understanding the anticancer mechanism of L-asparaginase, a key component of therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and exploring its potential in the treatment of solid tumors using mouse models. I also oversee our Agilent Seahorse platform and provide guidance and training to core users in experimental design, instrument operation, metabolomics, sample preparation and data analysis.
Lin Tan, M.S.
Laboratory Supervisor and Metabolomics Team Leader
My background and training are in analytical chemistry, metabolomics, lipidomics and drug development under good laboratory practices (GLP). I oversee our IC-MS and HILIC-MS platforms and develop custom bioanalytical methods using our high resolution orbitraps and triple quadrupole platforms.
Bao Tran, B.S.
Senior Research Assistant
My background and training are in analytical chemistry. I provide sample preparation, data acquisition and data analysis services for metabolomics.
Sara Martinez, B.S.
Research Assistant II
My background and training are in cellular biology. I provide sample preparation, data acquisition and data analysis services for metabolomics.
Bo Wei, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist and Lipidomics Team Leader
My background and training are in analytical chemistry and lipidomics. I oversee our fatty acids and lipidomics platforms and develop custom bioanalytical methods using our Orbitrap and triple quadrupole platforms.
Yun Xiong, Ph.D.
Research Scientist and MS Proteomics Platform Leader
My background and training are in proteomics. I oversee our MS proteomics platforms.
Yiwei Liu, Ph.D.
Research Scientist and Immunoassay Platform Leader
My background and training are in pharmacology and immunology. I oversee our immunoassay platforms.
Jibin Ding, B.S.
Senior Research Assistant
My background and training are in cell biology and analytical chemistry. I assist with sample preparation for a wide range of protein analysis platforms, including mass spectrometry and immunoassays.
Data Science Team
John Weinstein, M.D., Ph.D.
Core Co-Director
Professor and Chair, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
My background and training are in medicine, biophysics, statistics and bioinformatics. I help guide the development of pipelines for data analysis, visualization and reporting.
Rehan Akbani, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics Lead
Associate Professor, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
My background and training are in computer science and bioinformatics. I oversee the development of pipelines for data analysis, visualization, and reporting including the development of novel algorithms for data normalization.
Bradley Broom, Ph.D.
Professor, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
My background and training are in bioinformatics. I contribute to the development of pipelines for data analysis, visualization and reporting.
Iqbal Mahmud, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist and Data Science Team Leader
My background and training are in metabolomics, lipidomics, molecular biology, integrated omics, and bioinformatics. I provide day-to-day support for project reporting and contribute to the development of pipelines for data processing, pathway analysis and biological interpretation.
Shwetha Kumar, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
My background and training are in biostatistics and bioinformatics. I contribute to the development of pipelines for data processing, data analysis, data visualization and reporting.
Chris Wakefield, Ph.D
Manager and Software Engineering Team Leader
My background and training are in software engineering. I contribute to the development of pipelines for data analysis and assist with cybersecurity and data management.
Mary Rohrdanz, Ph.D.
Software Engineer
My background and training are in software engineering. I contribute to the development of pipelines for data analysis.
Glen Brosch, B.S.
IT Director
My background and training are in computer science and information technologies. I oversee the maintenance of workstations, servers, data storage and data backup resources.
Paul Van Drunen, B.S.
IT Technical Support
My background and training are in computer science and information technologies. I contribute to the maintenance of workstations, servers, data storage and data backup resources.