Mingfu Shao

Mingfu Shao is an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, and affiliated with the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. His research focuses on computational biology and bioinformatics, specifically on RNA-seq data analysis, transcriptome assembly, and genome rearrangement algorithms.

Research interests include developing exact and heuristic algorithms for genomic problems such as breakpoint distance computation, double-cut-and-join (DCJ) operations, and accurate assembly of circular RNAs and synthetic long reads. His work integrates machine learning techniques with traditional algorithmic approaches to enhance sequence analysis efficiency.

Recent publications highlight advancements in RNA-seq data processing (e.g., Aletsch, TERRACE, Anchorage) and theoretical contributions to edit distance and k-mer analysis. His projects, funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Human Genome Research Institute, aim to improve isoform-level regulatory network inference and allele-specific transcript assembly.