Computational Biology News

CBB student Cymfenee Dean-Phifer was one of 13 biomedical PhD students who received a pilot grant from the Duke University School of Medicine Office of Biomedical and Graduate Education (OBGE) and the Precision Genomics Collaboratory.

Duke researchers, including Ben Goldstein, PhD, are collaborating on a new project that uses machine learning to recognize patterns in electronic health record data associated with children who are later diagnosed with autism.

Congratulations to the following people who have successfully defended their dissertations and will graduate from the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Program.

CBB research faculty member John Hickey aims to identify how and why cells in the same environment develop different characteristics.

Duke CBB Research Faculty Member Monica Agrawal, PhD was named a 2025 Whitehead Scholar by the Duke University School of Medicine. The Whitehead Scholar program recognizes and supports outstanding potential in early-career biomedical researchers.

CBB Director of Graduate Studies David Carlson, PhD, has been named the Yoh Family Associate Professor. He received this prestigious Bass Chair in April 2025, marking his induction into the Bass Society of Fellows. Members of the society hold a named professor title for a five-year term, along with lifelong recognition as Bass Fellows. This honor recognizes contributions to undergraduate teaching and research.

CBB faculty member Cliburn Chan, PhD, co-leads a new national Center of Excellence for Multiscale Immune Systems Modeling (MISM), funded by a U54 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

A new algorithm could help researchers better predict how molecules bind to proteins —an essential step in designing more effective drugs to treat a wide range of diseases.

Computational Biology & Bioinformatics student, Yiling Liu, will deliver her dissertation defense on Robust and Scalable Causal Inference: Domain Alignment, Time-series Counterfactuals, Multi‑Treatment & Multi‑Outcome Causal Effects, and LLM-Integrated Causal Discovery on July 10. Title: Robust and Scalable Causal Inference: Domain Alignment, Time-series Counterfactuals, Multi‑Treatment & Multi‑Outcome Causal Effects, and LLM-Integrated Causal Discovery

Working with researchers in Spain and Germany, Hickey and his collaborators aim to understand how cytokines, growth factors and other small, soluble molecules, can direct cell behavior and influence how cells organize to form tissues and organs.