Peng Zhou

St. Paul, MN

Postdoc @ University of Minnesota

I’m a post doctoral associate in the Springer Lab at the University of Minnesota.

I am interested in answering complex biological questions using computational approaches:

  • Elucidation of molecular mechanisms underlying crop hybrid vigor using multi-omics approach;
  • Data mining on rapidly growing RNA-Sequencing resources for functional gene regulations;
  • Elucidation of transcriptional regulatory differences in maize genotypes response to cold and heat stress;
  • Integrating RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq, DAP-Seq, WGBS and ATAC-Seq to improve transcriptional network construction in maize;
  • Identification and characterization of structural variation in plant genome, pan-genome architecture

Check the Research page for a list of projects I’m involved in.

I have a computer science background, have programming experiences in many computer languages but now settled on python and R: I use python for efficient data processing and R for modeling / visualization. I’m good at massive biological data processing, high-performance computing, cloud computing, VIM and data visualization using ggplot2 / Rmarkdown / tidyverse. Check my GitHub for a list of useful libraries, scripts and configuration files.

While I can spend all day long coding and data mining, here are a list of things keeping me busy after work:

  • Traveling: getting to see, feel and experience a place - be it a small park or national park, a new city or country - is one of my life goals. Check here for the photos I took.
  • Reading: I enjoy reading classics, especially Chinese traditional literature. Check here for a list of books I read / commented.
  • Movies & music: get immersed in a highly-rated movie is good way for relaxing in the weekend, while music is an indispensable part of my everyday life.