Anna Panchenko

Dr. Anna Panchenko is a Professor at Queen's University, holding appointments in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine (School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences) and the School of Computing (Faculty of Arts and Science). She is also a Senior Investigator at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Computational Biology and Biophysics. Her research focuses on understanding cancer progression mechanisms, particularly how genetic and epigenetic factors influence mutations and their effects on proteins, interactions, and chromatin dynamics. She employs computational methods, including machine learning and molecular dynamics simulations, to study nucleosome positioning, histone interactions, and mutagenesis processes.

Education: PhD in Biophysics (Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1993), BSc in Biophysics (Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1989).

Research Interests: Computational biology, epigenetics, cancer genomics, molecular modeling, and machine learning applications in biomedicine. Her work integrates hypothesis-driven and data-driven approaches to uncover molecular mechanisms underlying cancer development.

Notable Awards: Tier I Canada Research Chair in Computational Biology and Biophysics.

Collaborations: Cross-disciplinary collaborations with OICR, Vector Institute for AI, and Queen's Cancer Research Institute. Tools developed include HYDROID for footprinting analysis and MutaBind for predicting mutation impacts on protein interactions.

Labs: Computational Biology and Biophysics Lab at Queen's University, focusing on cancer driver mutations and epigenetic mechanisms.