Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
Undergraduate Research Projects Showcase
The 2025 Undergraduate Research Project Showcase was a celebration of research, design, and creative theses—a requirement of every graduating senior through the Major Qualifying Project (MQP)—takes place each spring on campus. Student teams representing all academic departments present their work to their faculty advisors, external sponsors, and the community-at-large, and the public is invited. The chemistry and biochemistry department had extraordinary projects with thorough research from each participating student, as well as two exemplary MQP students who were awarded the Major Qualifying Project Awards. You can see all award winners in the exciting spotlight section below!
Featuring Our Students
BS/MS Student, Class of 2021
Ann-Elizabeth Le is a BCB student that has done bioinformatics research in and outside of WPI. She is currently on track to complete her 5 year BS/MS for a bioinformatics degree. In her sophomore year, Ann had the opportunity to go to the Janelia Research Campus to present about a predicted protein function based on sequential overlaps from a novel bacteriophage through a two-part lab class and ISP. For the past three summers, she also worked at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard as an intern analyzing HIV antigen processing and presentation.
PhD
Alicia Howell-Munson has been in the WPI PhD Program for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology since the fall of 2019. Her research interest has been to develop computers that are more intuitive and streamlined with the intent of the user. She is currently working under Professor Erin Solovey on a National Science Foundation grant for adaptive learning environments using non-invasive neuroimaging.
Our Faculty
Professor Amity Manning
Professor Manning is an assistant professor for the Department of Biology & Biotechnology. The work in her lab focuses on defining the cellular mechanisms that maintain genome stability in normal cells and understanding how these pathways are corrupted in cancer cells. She looks forward to working with students both in class and in the lab to gain a better understanding of cancer cell biology and to make meaningful contributions to cancer research.
Professor Reeta Rao
Professor Rao is the associate dean of graduate studies and a professor in the department of Biology & Biotechnology. In addition to teaching students in the class setting, she has a research program that focuses on understanding and managing fungal diseases. In the program, Professor Rao mentors and works with students in her lab to employ a myriad of molecular, genetic, genomic, biochemical approaches to understand fungal pathogenesis. Her paper was recently published in Nature Communications, Volume 10.
WPI Graduate Student Impresses at Dublin Conference
BCB graduate student Alyssa Tsiros won an honorable mention at the Symposium on Biological Data Visualization in Dublin, Ireland, for her biovisualization depicting the evolution of noncoding RNA in the Human accelerated region 1, a recently discovered gene that may be responsible for the accelerated brain development of humans compared to other mammals. Tsoris’s project stood out for effectively using color-coded arc diagrams to depict genetic data.
From WPI's University Magazine
Computational Connections
Dmitry Korkin has made the computer a powerful ally for unlocking the mysteries of biology and medicine.
