6 Mode-of-Action-Guided, Molecular …
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Ping Gong is Principal Investigator with multidisciplinary expertise in environmental genomics,
bioinformatics, bioengineering, mechanistic and predictive toxicology, and molecular modeling.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology and Ecology from Peking University
and a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy
of Sciences. He completed his postdoctoral studies in the Technology University of Berlin (TU
Berlin), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and Biotechnology Research Institute of National Research Council of Canada. As a research biologist, he has led a number
of multi-year projects that have greatly improved the fundamental and mechanistic understanding underlying the observed toxicities of military unique and other environmental contaminants.
His current research interests focus on mode of action-guided predictive toxicology, genetic
variations-conferred herbicide resistance, epigenetics-driven transgenerational inheritance of phenotypic traits, and synthetic biology-based bioengineering and biocontrol of invasive species. He
has advised more than 18 graduate students and published over 75 peer-reviewed research articles
and book chapters. He also served on the Board of Directors of MidSouth Computational Biology
and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS) as well as the editorial boards of Frontiers in Genetics and
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Sundar Thangapandian is Computational Chemist/Biophysicist at Environmental Laboratory of
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS with an appointment at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). His current research focuses on development of computational toxicity prediction efforts. Before joining ERDC, he was a postdoctoral
research associate at the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group (TCBG), University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL and spent two years in designing novel therapeutics for
the pharmaceutical industry. He earned his Ph.D. in computational biophysics from Gyeongsang
National University, South Korea.
Yan Li is Senior Scientist with Bennett Aerospace, Inc. He earned his Ph.D. in Computational
Chemistry from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,
China in 2002. As a computational chemist, Dr. Li has extensive experience in solving biological and chemical questions using computational methods. He has been closely collaborating with
multidisciplinary scientists in the discovery of anti-cancer agents and development of toxicity
databases. His research interests include molecular dynamics simulation, computer-aided drug
discovery and design, receptor–ligand interaction, computational toxicity prediction, and protein
structure prediction.
Gabriel Idakwo is Ph.D. student and research assistant in the School of Computing Sciences and
Computer Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research has focused on
machine learning applied to problems in the field of computational chemistry, including chemical structure-activity relationship modeling, toxicity prediction, and feature selection. Gabriel
received his BS from Ahmadu Bello University in 2008 and his MS from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2014.
Joseph Luttrell IV is Ph.D. student and research assistant in the School of Computing Sciences
and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research has focused on
machine learning and its application to problems in the areas of bioinformatics and image processing, including protein residue–residue contact prediction, face recognition, and object detection.
Joseph received his BS in computer science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2016.
Minjun Chen is Principal Investigator working at the Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatics
of the US FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research and serves as the adjunct faculty and
mentor for the bioinformatics program offered jointly by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
(UALR) and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He received the FDA
award for outstanding junior investigator (2012), the NCTR scientific achievement award (2014)
117
Ping Gong is Principal Investigator with multidisciplinary expertise in environmental genomics,
bioinformatics, bioengineering, mechanistic and predictive toxicology, and molecular modeling.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology and Ecology from Peking University
and a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy
of Sciences. He completed his postdoctoral studies in the Technology University of Berlin (TU
Berlin), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and Biotechnology Research Institute of National Research Council of Canada. As a research biologist, he has led a number
of multi-year projects that have greatly improved the fundamental and mechanistic understanding underlying the observed toxicities of military unique and other environmental contaminants.
His current research interests focus on mode of action-guided predictive toxicology, genetic
variations-conferred herbicide resistance, epigenetics-driven transgenerational inheritance of phenotypic traits, and synthetic biology-based bioengineering and biocontrol of invasive species. He
has advised more than 18 graduate students and published over 75 peer-reviewed research articles
and book chapters. He also served on the Board of Directors of MidSouth Computational Biology
and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS) as well as the editorial boards of Frontiers in Genetics and
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Sundar Thangapandian is Computational Chemist/Biophysicist at Environmental Laboratory of
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS with an appointment at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). His current research focuses on development of computational toxicity prediction efforts. Before joining ERDC, he was a postdoctoral
research associate at the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group (TCBG), University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), IL and spent two years in designing novel therapeutics for
the pharmaceutical industry. He earned his Ph.D. in computational biophysics from Gyeongsang
National University, South Korea.
Yan Li is Senior Scientist with Bennett Aerospace, Inc. He earned his Ph.D. in Computational
Chemistry from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,
China in 2002. As a computational chemist, Dr. Li has extensive experience in solving biological and chemical questions using computational methods. He has been closely collaborating with
multidisciplinary scientists in the discovery of anti-cancer agents and development of toxicity
databases. His research interests include molecular dynamics simulation, computer-aided drug
discovery and design, receptor–ligand interaction, computational toxicity prediction, and protein
structure prediction.
Gabriel Idakwo is Ph.D. student and research assistant in the School of Computing Sciences and
Computer Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research has focused on
machine learning applied to problems in the field of computational chemistry, including chemical structure-activity relationship modeling, toxicity prediction, and feature selection. Gabriel
received his BS from Ahmadu Bello University in 2008 and his MS from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2014.
Joseph Luttrell IV is Ph.D. student and research assistant in the School of Computing Sciences
and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research has focused on
machine learning and its application to problems in the areas of bioinformatics and image processing, including protein residue–residue contact prediction, face recognition, and object detection.
Joseph received his BS in computer science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2016.
Minjun Chen is Principal Investigator working at the Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatics
of the US FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research and serves as the adjunct faculty and
mentor for the bioinformatics program offered jointly by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
(UALR) and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He received the FDA
award for outstanding junior investigator (2012), the NCTR scientific achievement award (2014)