All | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017
2026
JULY
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We are excited to announce that our lab has officially relocated to the University of Virginia (UVA). This move marks an exciting new chapter for our research program, and we look forward to building new collaborations and advancing our work within the vibrant scientific community at UVA.
2025
OCTOBER
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The Chong Lab attended the ASHG 2025 Annual Meeting. Zechen gave a platform talk, and the other lab members presented posters.
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Our collaborative work with Dr. Hardiman’s lab on molecular predictors of treatment resistance and recurrence in rectal cancer is now online in BMC Cancer.
JULY
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We received a five-year NIH/NIGMS MIRA (R35) renewal award.
2024
MARCH
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Our work was selected as a featured cover article by Cancer Research
JANUARY
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Our work on body weight and molecular variation in cancer is online in Cancer Research
2023
SEPTEMBER
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In collaboration with Dr. Rocque from the Department of Neurosurgery, we received an R21 award.
JULY
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So thrilled to join the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC) as an Associate Member!
JUNE
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Fengyuan successfully defended her dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Huang!
JANUARY
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DeBreak is online in Nature Communications!
2022
OCTOBER
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Our work on gene-fusion detection using long-read transcriptome data was accepted by Cancer Research.
AUGUST
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PLOS Genetics paper is online
In collaboration with Dr. John Parant’s group, our paper was published in PLOS Genetics.
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Nature Communications paper is online
In collaboration with Lewis Shi’s group, our paper was published in Nature Communications.
MAY
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BMC Genomics paper is online
Our work on bacterial genome assembly using long and hybrid reads was published in BMC Genomics.
2021
NOVEMBER
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Genome Biology paper is online
Our work, “Accurate long-read de novo assembly evaluation with Inspector”, is online today in Genome Biology.
OCTOBER
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Welcome Guy
Welcome GBS/GGB theme student Guy Twa to rotate in the lab.
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Welcome Oliver
We welcomed master’s student Oliver Tan from the Department of Computer Science to the lab.
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Nature Cancer paper is online
In collaboration with Eddy Yang’s group, our paper, “RNF2 ablation reprograms the tumor-immune microenvironment and stimulates durable NK and CD4+ T-cell-dependent antitumor immunity,” was published in Nature Cancer.
AUGUST
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Fengyuan presented at ICIBM 21
Fengyuan presented her work, “B-assembler: A Circular Bacterial Genome Assembler.” Well done!
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Maggi’s abstract was accepted for a platform (oral) presentation at ASHG 2021
Maggi’s abstract, “Genome-wide association of structural variations with lipid metabolism traits in TOPMed GOLDN study,” was accepted for a platform presentation at the ASHG 2021 Virtual Meeting. Only 198 of more than 2,000 abstracts were selected for oral presentations. Good job, Maggi!
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Maggi has been selected as a Predoctoral Semifinalist for the 2021 Charles J. Epstein Trainee Awards for Excellence in Human Genetics Research
Quote from ASHG 2021:” The competition was intense this year, with over 500 applicants for only 60 semifinalist and 18 finalist selections. While your abstract did not reach the finalist stage, selection to the semifinalist stage is a significant honor and reflects the quality and significance of your work.” Awesome, Maggi!
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Fengyuan received the ICIBM 2021 Best Paper Award Runner-Up Certificate
Good job, Fengyuan! Congratulations!
FEBRUARY
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ClipSV paper is online!
ClipSV paper is online!
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Welcome Shaurita
Welcome GBS/GGB theme student Shaurita Hutchins to rotate in the lab.
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HGSVC paper is online in Science
Our HGSVC collaborative paper is online in Science.
JANUARY
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Welcome Santhosh
Welcome GBS/Cancer biology theme student Santhosh Kumar Karthikeyan to rotate in the lab.
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Welcome Meghan
Welcome undergraduate student Meghan to join the lab.
2020
DECEMBER
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Welcome Stephanie
Welcome undergraduate student Stephanie to join the lab.
SEPTEMBER
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Welcome Katrina and Ethan
Welcome undergraduate students Katrina and Ethan to join the lab.
AUGUST
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Welcome Weisheng
Welcome GBS/Cancer biology theme student Weisheng Chen to rotate in the lab.
JUNE
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MIRA Award!
We received a five-year, $1.8 million MIRA award from NIH/NIGMS. We are grateful for this support and excited to expand our research.
MARCH
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Zechen appointed in CCTS
Zechen was appointed as Associate Scientist of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS).
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BDCatalyst Award!
Awesome news! We received a fellowship from the NHLBI BioData Catalyst Fellowship Program.
2019
OCTOBER
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Welcome Yiqing
We welcomed Yiqing from the Department of Computer Science as a research assistant.
AUGUST
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Two abstracts were selected for ASHG 2019
One abstract from our lab was selected for a platform presentation at ASHG 2019, and another was selected as a Reviewers’ Choice Abstract.
JULY
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Zechen appointed in MHRC
Zechen was appointed as Associate Scientist of the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center (MHRC).
JUNE
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MRLR accepted in Bioinformatics!
Our paper, “MRLR: unraveling high-resolution meiotic recombination by linked reads,” was accepted by Bioinformatics.
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AHA Research Leaders Academy
Zechen was invited to attend the American Heart Association Research Leaders Academy.
MAY
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PPA-assembler accepted!
In collaboration with Dr. Da Yan’s group, our paper, “Scalable De Novo Genome Assembly Using a Pregel-Like Graph-Parallel System,” was accepted by IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics.
2018
OCTOBER
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Welcome Yuwei
Welcome GBS/GGB theme student Yuwei Song to rotate in the lab.
SEPTEMBER
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Supplementary Award!
In collaboration with Dr. Greg Cooper at HudsonAlpha, we were awarded supplemental CSER funding.
AUGUST
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Platform talk at ASHG!
Our abstract has been accepted for a PLATFORM (oral) presentation at the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting in San Diego.
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Pilot award!
We received a pilot research award from the UAB Obesity Health Disparities Research Center (OHDRC).
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Poster award!
Peng’s poster won 2nd place in the ATTIS 18 Poster Competition. Congratulations!
JULY
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MRLR preprint
The first preprint manuscript of the lab is available at bioRxiv. Fingers crossed!
MARCH
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Welcome Maggi
Ms. Yu Chen (Maggi) joined the lab as a graduate student in the GGB theme. Welcome, Maggi!
2017
NOVEMBER
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Welcome Ming
Prof. Ming Ye joined the lab as a visiting scholar. Welcome, Dr. Ye!
SEPTEMBER
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Welcome Peng
Dr. Peng Xu joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow. Welcome, Dr. Xu!
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Zechen to organize PowerTalk
Zechen began organizing the UAB Bioinformatics PowerTalk seminar series.
AUGUST
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Data Fellowship award!
We received an Institutional Data Fellowship from the American Heart Association Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine.
JUNE
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novoBreak released on CGC
With the help of the Bioinformatics team from Seven Bridges, we optimized and released novoBreak as a public workflow on their Cancer Genomics Cloud (CGC). The story was posted on the Seven Bridges blog as well.
APRIL
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Paper published in Science Advances
In collaboration with Dr. Gordon Mills’ lab at MD Anderson, we published a paper in Science Advances: “A murine preclinical syngeneic transplantation model for breast cancer precision medicine.”
MARCH
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Chong lab officially launched!
The Chong Lab officially launched in the Informatics Institute at the UAB School of Medicine.