138
G. Idakwo et al.
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) and the FDA scientific achievement award (2017). He has been co-chairing the FDA
Liver Toxicity Working Group since 2014 and edited the book titled “Drug-induced Liver Toxicity” that was published by the Springer in 2018. His primary research interests encompass druginduced liver injury, drug safety, bioinformatics, and personalized medicine. He has authored or
co-authored more than 90 original publications and book chapters.
Huixiao Hong is Chief of Bioinformatics Branch, Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics,
National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
working on the scientific bases for regulatory applications of bioinformatics. Before joining the
FDA, he was Manager of Bioinformatics Division of Z-Tech, an ICFI company. He was a research
scientist at Sumitomo Chemical Company in Japan and a visiting scientist at National Cancer
Institute at National Institutes of Health. He was also Associate Professor and the Director of
Laboratory of Computational Chemistry at Nanjing University in China. Dr. Hong is a member
of the steering committee of OpenTox, a member of board directors of US MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society, and is in the leadership circle of US FDA modeling
and simulation working group. He published more than 180 scientific papers and served as Editorin-Chief and Editorial Board member for multiple peer-reviewed journals. He received his Ph.D.
from Nanjing University in China in 1990 and conducted research in Leeds University in England
in 1990–1992.
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 Ph.D. 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
G. Idakwo et al.
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) and the FDA scientific achievement award (2017). He has been co-chairing the FDA
Liver Toxicity Working Group since 2014 and edited the book titled “Drug-induced Liver Toxicity” that was published by the Springer in 2018. His primary research interests encompass druginduced liver injury, drug safety, bioinformatics, and personalized medicine. He has authored or
co-authored more than 90 original publications and book chapters.
Huixiao Hong is Chief of Bioinformatics Branch, Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics,
National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
working on the scientific bases for regulatory applications of bioinformatics. Before joining the
FDA, he was Manager of Bioinformatics Division of Z-Tech, an ICFI company. He was a research
scientist at Sumitomo Chemical Company in Japan and a visiting scientist at National Cancer
Institute at National Institutes of Health. He was also Associate Professor and the Director of
Laboratory of Computational Chemistry at Nanjing University in China. Dr. Hong is a member
of the steering committee of OpenTox, a member of board directors of US MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society, and is in the leadership circle of US FDA modeling
and simulation working group. He published more than 180 scientific papers and served as Editorin-Chief and Editorial Board member for multiple peer-reviewed journals. He received his Ph.D.
from Nanjing University in China in 1990 and conducted research in Leeds University in England
in 1990–1992.
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 Ph.D. 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