Hao Feng

Hao Feng, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Population and Cancer Prevention Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research focuses on developing biostatistical and bioinformatics methods to analyze high-throughput omics data, particularly in epigenomics. He has created multiple open-source software tools (e.g., ISLET, magpie, NeuCA) widely used in disease studies, with over 10,000 annual downloads. Dr. Feng collaborates with clinical and wet-lab researchers to interpret cancer genomics data.

Education:

• PhD in Biostatistics, Emory University (2019)
• MS in Biostatistics, Emory University (2018)
• MSPH in Biostatistics, Emory University (2013)
• BS in Biosciences, University of Science and Technology of China (2011)

Research Interests: Dr. Feng specializes in statistical methods development for omics data, including epigenomics and transcriptomics. His work emphasizes practical applications in computational biology, such as identifying cancer subtypes via epigenetic biomarkers and improving cell-type-level inference through personalized genomics deconvolution. Recent projects include developing tools for power analysis in MeRIP-seq studies and neural network-based cell-type annotation.

Grants & Funding: He leads the NIH/NIGMS Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) grant (1R35GM154862), totaling $1.9M, focused on personalized genomics deconvolution. This work aims to enhance cell-type-level inference accuracy in complex biological systems.

Labs & Teams: His lab (hfenglab.org) focuses on integrating statistical and computational approaches to solve challenges in precision medicine and cancer research. Collaborations span clinical oncology, neurobiology, and bioinformatics.