Weigang Qiu

Weigang Qiu is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). His research focuses on the population genomics of microbial pathogens, particularly the Lyme disease bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.

Dr. Qiu received his educational training from:

• BS in Biochemistry from Fudan University, China (1986)
• PhD in Ecology and Evolution from State University of New York at Stony Brook (1999)
• Postdoctoral training in Bioinformatics at University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (2002)

Dr. Qiu's research interests center on evolutionary bioinformatics and pathogen variability. His lab specializes in comparative analysis of multiple genomes of the Lyme disease pathogen, reconstructing the history of worldwide diversification of Lyme disease bacteria, understanding mechanisms of genome evolution (particularly roles of recombination and natural selection), and inference of gene and genome functions. His approach is primarily bioinformatics-based, focusing on computational and statistical testing of evolutionary hypotheses. Students in his lab learn modern computational tools including relational databases/SQL, Perl/BioPerl, and statistical computing with R.

Analysis of Dr. Qiu's publication record shows a consistent focus on Lyme disease pathogens and bacterial evolution, with recent work expanding into cancer biology and thyroid cancer research. His research demonstrates interdisciplinary connections between evolutionary biology, microbiology, and medical applications, highlighting how evolutionary principles can inform our understanding of disease mechanisms.

Dr. Qiu teaches several courses including Molecular Evolution (BIOL 375), Computational Molecular Biology (BIOL 425), Bioinformatics Summer Workshop (BIOL 470), and Microbiology (BIOL 230). He is also involved in the QuBi Project for curricular improvement in quantitative biology.

Dr. Qiu leads the Qiu Lab, which focuses on bioinformatics tools development for bacterial genomics research. The lab has developed several specialized tools including:

• Borrelia Ortholog Retriever: For obtaining ortholog alignments from 23 Borrelia spp genomes
• SimBac: A package for simulating bacterial genome evolution
• DNATweezer: A Perl wrapper of BioPerl modules
• The Bio::Align::Graphics module