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Dr. Shaolei Teng
Faculty
Faculty

Shaolei Teng

Associate Professor and Associate Chair

shaolei.teng@Howard.edu

Department/Office

  • Biology

School/College

  • College of Arts & Sciences

Education & Expertise

Education

B.S.
Soochow University
2004

M.S.
Gyeongsang National University
2006

Ph.D.
Clemson University
2011

Postdoctoral Fellow
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
2011-2015

Expertise

Bioinformatics

Mental Disorders

Next-Generation Sequencing

Machine Learning

Protein Structure Modeling

Academics

Academics

Bioinformatics (BIOL/BIOG 419)

Biostatistics (BIOL/BIOG 430)

Research

Research

Specialty

Bioinformatics

Funding

  • NSF Excellence in Research: Analysis of Rare Mutations and Post-translational Modifications in Peroxidases (PI)
  • NSF Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR): Data Science Corps (DSC) : Collaborative Research: ADACE: Anthropocentric Data Analytics for Community Enrichment (Co-PI)
  • NSF Targeted Infusion Project: Inspiring, engaging and retaining underrepresented students in computing research and the emerging field of data science (Co-PI)        
  • DoD Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (CoE-AIML). (Senior Personal)
  • Howard University RCMI Investigator Development Core (IDC) Research Grants. (PI)
  • AIM-AHEAD) Data Science Training Core (DSTC) Faculty Teaching Buyout and Curriculum Development Pilot Program (PI)
  • NIH Howard University summer research education experience program in oral health. (Research Mentor) 

Group Information

Bioinformatics is a new scientific discipline that utilizes computational approaches for understanding the biological meanings behind the large amounts of complex data generated from high-throughput technologies. The goal of the Teng lab is to develop and apply bioinformatics approaches for analyzing the genetic variations associated with human diseases and discovering biological knowledge hidden in the massive data sets. We are currently focused on three research areas including next-generation sequencing, machine learning and protein structure modeling. 

NEXT-GENERATION SEQUENCING (NGS) technologies make the sequencing much faster and cheaper, which have revolutionized genetic research and accelerated precision medicine. We are using whole genome sequencing and targeted sequencing to identify the sequence variants that contribute to major psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. We are applying RNA sequencing to study gene expression changes in model organisms. In addition, we are developing bioinformatics tools and databases to analyze NGS data for mental illness and cancer research. 

MACHINE LEARNING can recognize complex and hidden pattern from massive data sets, and it is particularly appealing for biological knowledge discovery in big data. We are developing new machine learning methods to analyze NGS data, disease-causing mutations and protein post-translational modifications.

PROTEIN STRUCTURE MODELING provides an efficient and accurate way to investigate the functional effects of coding sequence variants by mapping them on the corresponding structure models. We are using homology modeling and energy calculation approaches to estimate the effects of missense variants on protein stability and protein-protein interactions, and investigate the roles of the mutations in complex diseases such as obesity, cancers and psychiatric disorders. 

Publications and Presentations

Publications and Presentations

Systemic Effects of Missense Mutations on SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein Stability and Receptor Binding Affinity

Shaolei Teng*, Adebiyi Sobitan, Raina Rhoades, Dongxiao Liu, and Qiyi Tang* (2020) Systemic Effects of Missense Mutations on SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein Stability and Receptor Binding Affinity. Briefings in Bioinformatics. Oct 2; doi: 10.1093/bib/bbaa233. PMID: 33006605; PMCID: PMC7665319

Rare disruptive variants in the DISC1 Interactome and Regulome: association with cognitive ability and schizophrenia.

Shaolei Teng, Pippa A. Thomson, Shane McCarthy, Melissa Kramer, Stephanie Muller, Jayon Lihm, Stewart Morris, Dinesh Soares, William Hennah, Sarah Harris, Luiz Miguel Camargo, Vladislav Malkov, Andrew M McIntosh, J. Kirsty Millar, Douglas Blackwood, Kathryn L. Evans, Ian Deary, David J. Porteous* and W. Richard McCombie* (2018) Rare disruptive variants in the DISC1 Interactome and Regulome: association with cognitive ability and schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry, 2018 May;23(5):1270-1277. doi: 10.1038/mp.2017.115. PMID: 28630456

Genetic variations affecting the ACE2 protein stability in minority populations

Vidhyanand Mahase, Adebiyi Sobitan, Raina Rhoades, Fuquan Zhang, Ancha Baranova, Mark Johnson, Abiodun Otolorin, Qiyi Tang, and Shaolei Teng* (2022) Genetic variations affecting the ACE2 protein stability in minority populations. Frontiers in Medicine, section Infectious Diseases – Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment 2022; 9: 1002187. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.1002187 PMCID: PMC9659633 PMID: 36388927

Prediction of the effects of missense mutations on human Myeloperoxidase protein stability using in silico saturation mutagenesis.

Adebiyi Sobitan, William Edwards, Md Shah Jalal, Kolawole Ayanfe, Hemayet Ullah, Atanu Duttaroy, Jiang Li, Shaolei Teng*. (2022) Prediction of the effects of missense mutations on human Myeloperoxidase protein stability using in silico saturation mutagenesis. Genes 2022, 13(8), 1412; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13081412

Computational Saturation Mutagenesis to Investigate the Effects of Neurexin-1 Mutations on AlphaFold Structure

Raina Rhoades, Brianna Henry, Dominique Prichett, Yayin Fang, Shaolei Teng* (2022) Computational Saturation Mutagenesis to Investigate the Effects of Neurexin-1 Mutations on AlphaFold Structure, Genes 2022, 13(5), 789; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes1305078

Impact of SARS-CoV-2 on Host Factors Involved in Mental Disorders

Raina Rhoades, Sarah Solomon, Christina Johnson and Shaolei Teng* (2022) Impact of SARS-CoV-2 on Host Factors Involved in Mental Disorders. Frontiers in Microbiology. 13:845559. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.845559. PMID: 35444632 PMCID: PMC9014212

Computational saturation mutagenesis of SARS-CoV-1 spike glycoprotein: stability, binding affinity, and comparison with SARS-CoV-2.

Adebiyi Sobitan, Vidhyanand Mahase, Raina Rhoades, Dejaun Williams, Dongxiao Liu, Yixin Xie, Lin Li, Qiyi Tang* and Shaolei Teng* (2021) Computational saturation mutagenesis of SARS-CoV-1 spike glycoprotein: stability, binding affinity, and comparison with SARS-CoV-2. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences. 2021; 8: 784303. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.784303 PMCID: PMC8696472; PMID: 34957216

Cancer missense mutations alter binding properties of proteins and their interaction networks

Hafumi Nishi, Manoj Tyagi, Shaolei Teng, Benjamin Shoemaker, Kosuke Hashimoto, Emil Alexov, Stefan Wuchty and Anna R. Panchenko. (2013) Cancer missense mutations alter binding properties of proteins and their interaction networks. PLOS ONE. 8(6): e66273

Modeling effects of human SNPs on protein-protein interactions

Shaolei Teng, Petras Kundrotas, Thomas Madej, Anna Panchenko and Emil Alexov. (2009) Modeling effects of human SNPs on protein-protein interactions. Biophysical Journal 96(6): 2178-2188.

Predicting protein sumoylation sites from sequence features

Shaolei Teng, Hong Luo, Liangjiang Wang. (2011) Predicting protein sumoylation sites from sequence features. Amino Acids, 43(1):447-55.

Genome-wide prediction and analysis of human tissue-selective genes using microarray expression data.

Shaolei Teng, Jack Y Yang and Liangjiang Wang. (2013) Genome-wide prediction and analysis of human tissue-selective genes using microarray expression data. BMC Medical Genomics, 6(Suppl 1):S10