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Welcome to Qiu Lab Wiki @ Hunter Weigang Qiu, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biological Sciences Hunter College of City University of New York Adjunct Faculty, Weill Cornell Medical College, Department of Systems and Computational Biomedicine Belfer Research Building, Room 402 413 East  69th Street, New York, NY 10021 Office: 1-212-896-0445 Email: wqiu-at-(hunter.cuny.edu) Directions by Google Map

A textbook for microbial genomics & evolution (Spring 2026): Read excerpts & Order from the publisher using Author Discount (25%) Code "C2508" Companion codebook (work in progress 😊)

Fieldwork Gallery

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  Apr 2026, Rockefeller State Park, NY

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  Oct 2023, Long Island, NY

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  June 2022, MA

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  June 2021, MA

Lab publications

Lyme Genomics, Evolution, & Ecology

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  Akther et al. 2024. "Natural selection and recombination at host-interacting lipoprotein loci drive genome diversification of Lyme disease and related bacteria" mBio 0:e01749-24. Press coverage: CUNY Graduate Center News Story; Hunter press
  

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  Di, Chong, Brian Sulkow, Weigang Qiu, and Shipeng Sun. 2023. "Effects of Micro-Scale Environmental Factors on the Quantity of Questing Black-Legged Ticks in Suburban New York" Applied Sciences 13, no. 20: 11587.
  

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  Li, Di, Zeglis, Qiu (2022). “Evolution of the vls antigenic variability locus of the Lyme Disease pathogen and development of recombinant monoclonal antibodies targeting conserved VlsE epitopes”. Microbial Spectrum 10 (5):1-15.
  

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  Di*, Akther*, Bezrucenkovas, Ivanova, Sulkow, Wu, Mneimneh, Gomes-Solecki, Qiu (2021). "Maximum antigen diversification in a lyme bacterial population and evolutionary strategies to overcome pathogen diversity". The ISME Journal. 16, 447-464. (*co-first authors) Blog Post
  

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  Schwartz, Margos, Casjens, Qiu, Eggers (2020). "Multipartite Genome of Lyme Disease Borrelia: Structure, Variation and Prophages". Current Issues in Molecular Biology. 42:409-454.
  

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  Barbour & Qiu (2019). Borreliella. In Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., in association with Bergey's Manual Trust.
  

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  Di L, Wan Z, Akther S, Ying CX, Larracuente A, Li L, Di C, Nunez R, Cucura DM, Goddard NL, Krampis K, Qiu WG. (2018). Genotyping and Quantifying Lyme Pathogen Strains by Deep Sequencing of the Outer Surface Protein C (ospC) Locus. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 56(11):e00940-18.
  

Evolution & Learning Algorithms

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  Ely, Koh, Ho, Hassan, Pham, Qiu (2023). Novelty Search Promotes Antigenic Diversity in Microbial Pathogens. Pathogens 12:388.
  

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  Attie, Sulkow, Di, Qiu (2019). Genetic codes optimized as a traveling salesman problem. PLoS ONE 14(10): e0224552.
  

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  Yan, Deforet, Boyle, Rahman, Liang, Okegbe, Dietrich, Qiu, Xavier (2017). Bow-tie signaling in c-di-GMP: Machine learning in a simple biochemical network. PLoS Comput Biol 13(8): e1005677.
  

Informatics Tool Development

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  Hernandez, Bernstein, Pagan, Vargas, McCaig, Ramrattan, Akther, Larracuente, Di, Vieira, Qiu. (2018). BbWrapper: BioPerl-based sequence and tree utilities for rapid prototyping of bioinformatics pipelines. BMC Bioinformatics 19(1):76.
  

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  Di, Pagan, Packer, Martin, Akther, Ramrattan, Mongodin, Fraser, Schutzer, Luft, Casjens and Qiu. (2014). BorreliaBase: a phylogeny-centered browser of Borrelia genomes. BMC Bioinformatics 15:233.
  

• Full list by Google Scholar
• Full list by NCBI Bibliography

last update: March 20, 2023

Lab members and trainees

Year/Period	Doctoral members & trainees	Other members & trainees
Current Academic Year (Spring & Summer 2026)	Edee Amin: CUNY Graduate Center, Bio/EEB doctoral program Dr Yozen Hernandez: System administrator (part-time), Ph.D. from Boston University	Tasmina Hassan: Hunter Bio/CS Mathew DiCicco: Hunter Math/CS Tara Doma Lama: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics Hagar Abuzaid: Hunter Bio
Alumni (Since Fall 2002)	Brandon Ely (2026): CUNY Grad Center, Biology/MCD doctoral program Li Li (Lily, 2023): CUNY Grad Center, Biology/EEB doctoral program Dr Lia Di: Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Associate, from Nanjing Agricultural University & Wisconsin Blood Institute Dr Saymon Akther (2022): CUNY Grad Center, Biology/EEB Dr Rayees Rahman: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics, Ph.D. from Mt Sinai Medical School Dr Che Martin (2013): CUNY Grad Center, Biology/MCD Dr James Haven (2011): CUNY Grad Center, Biology/MCD Dr Tika Sukarna (2009): CUNY Grad Center, Biology/MCD Dr Juan Coronado (2008): CUNY Grad Center, Biology/MCD (Dr Peter Lipke) Dr William McCaig: CUNY BA, Ph.D. from Stony Brook University Dr Vincent Xue: CUNY CS/Bioinformatics, Ph.D. from MIT Dr Fubin Li: CUNY Grad Center, Biology/MCD (Dr Laurel Eckhardt) Dr Oliver Attie: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Ph.D. from NYU	(published coauthors) Brian Sulkow: CUNY Grad Center, Mathematics Winston Koh: Hunter Bio/CS Eamen Ho: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics Ahn Pham: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics Chris Panlasigui: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics Amanda Amanda Larracuente: CUNY Grad Center, Biology/MCD Pedro Pagan: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics Edgaras Bezrucenkovas: Hunter Chem/Bioinformatics Girish Ramrattan: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics Levy Vargas: Hunter Bio/Bioinformatics Chong Di: Hunter Geography Roy Nunez: Hunter Bio Mei Wu: CUNY City Tech Desiree Pante: Hunter Bio Saimtun Shipa: Hunter Stat (MA) Bing Wu: Hunter Bio/Biotechnology Svidatoslav Kendall (Slav): Hunter Biology Philip Romov: Hunter CS

Web Apps

Apps with Collaborators (or from published papers)

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  Borrelia diagnostic antigens (App developed by Liann Aris-Henry; Data from Arumugam et al (2019))
  

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  Borrelia growth transcriptome (App developed by Laziz Asamov; Data from Arnold et al (2016))
  

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  Data & GSEA associated with Polotskaia_etal_2014 (with Bargonetti Lab @Hunter)
  

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  Phosphoproteome MDM2KD data set (with Bargonetti Lab @Hunter)
  

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  Genes & Pathways Associated with mTP53 (with Bargonetti Lab @Hunter)
  

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  S. pombe transcriptomes (with Zhong Lab @Hunter)
  

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  Group B Streptococcus (GBS) genome browser (with Wu Lab @Shenzhen)
  

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  1K genome (with Ogunwobi Lab @Hunter)
  

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  E faecalis genome browser (with Morales Lab @WCMC)
  

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  Proteomics GSEA results (with Melendez Lab @Hunter)
  

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  pHis Protein Browser (with Skolnik lab @NYU)
  

Qiu Lab Apps

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  Lyme genome browser
  

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  Lyme pathogen plasmid partitioning gene trees
  

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  vls Finder in Lyme pathogen genomes
  

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  Codon Wheel
  

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  Co-visualization of a tree with an alignment and character matrix
  

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  OspC amplicon sequencing from ticks
  

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  Genomic epidemiology of a Salmonella outbreak (ASM Challenge)
  

Curricular Development & Bioinformatics/QuBi Advising

• BIOL48002 requirements:
  • Student’s proposed project is Biology and not patient evaluation/intervention and/or health services research
  • Projects must be driven by a hypothesis on a biological question and should give the student handson training in biological research skills.
  • Final BIOL 480 Report Compoents:
    • Cover page
    • Abstract
    • Project description
    • Materials and methods
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Conclusion
    • References
    • Appendices: Include figures, tables, charts, graphs and code.
  • Report format
    • Only Portable Document Format (PDF) files will be accepted.
    • File must be single-spaced.
    • No more than 15 characters per inch (cpi) or an average of no more than 15 cpi (cpi includes symbols, punctuation and spaces).
    • No less than 3Ž4" margins allowed.
    • Sixty lines per page are the maximum allowed (The average number of lines per page using the font and point size below will be approximately 50-55 lines).
    • Arial Font style, 12 point font size for Windows users; Helvetica Font style, 12 point font size for Macintosh users
    • Figures, charts, tables, graphics and legends may be smaller in size but must be clear and legible.
    • Eight-page limit (not including references)
• QuBi advisors: Weigang Qiu, Ntino Krampis, Rabindra Mandal (Biology); Saad Mneimeih, Lei Xie (CS); Akira Kawamura (Chem); Dana Sylvan (Math & Stats)
  • Permission for non-Biology majors to take BIOL203 & BIOL425, every Spring
  • Collect names, major, and IDs to send to course coordinator to grant permission. Waive BIOL10200 pre-reqs for taking BIOL203.
• Curricular resources:
  • Biology courses and pre-reqs
  • Hunter Biology Major 1 (including the Bioinformatics Option)
  • Hunter Chemistry Major 2 (including the Bioinformatics Option)
  • Hunter Computer Science (including Bioinformatics Concentration)
  • Hunter Mathematics (including the Quantitative Biology Concentration)
  • Hunter Statistics (including the Quantitative Biology Concentration)
• QuBi advising:
  • Declaration of Bioinformatics concentration: In-person advising to work out the semester-by-semester courses
  • Approve on department spreadsheet (or send email to "Samantha Sheppard-Lahiji" and "HTR Bio" <biology@hunter.cuny.edu>)
  • Students should take Bioinformatics-specific electives (8 cred; see Hunter Catalog below), not general electives
    • Examples: Anthrop302 (3 cr); Chem333 (3 cr); BIOL47119 & BIOL47120 (3cr); BIOL48002 (2 cr)
  • Students need to take BIOL48002 (2 cr), which counts towards as research credit, to graduate as honors
• General advising:
  • ~40 students every semester. Send out emails to students. Go through student courses by Email or by appointment
  • Recommend new math courses: MATH15200 & STAT21350
• Hosting QuBi students in lab
  • This is to enhance the informatics and coding skills of our students
  • Students should register and get BIOL48002 credits, which counts towards their elective credits & eligibility for honors
  • 3-5 students per semester
• Outside research opportunities
  • MIT Quantitative Workshop (first week of January, in Boston). Coordination with CS (Saad & Susan Epstein) in Fall
  • Simons Foundation/Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Biology (CCB) Internship program. Open House in Spring

Course/Lecture syllabi

Informatics Workshop (NYRaMP & Belfer)

• Summer 2026 (by Dr. Brandon Ely)
  • Day 1 (Aug 4)
  • Day 2 (Aug 11)
  • Day 3 (Aug 18)
• Summer 2025 (by Brandon Ely)
• Summer 2024 (Weigang & Brandon)
• Big Data (Summer, 2020)
  • Tutorial: R Markdown (Spring 2024)
  • Tutorial: Cluster analysis (Spring 2024)
  • Tutorial: single-cel transcriptome analysis (Spring 2024)

Computational Genomics (in China)

• KIZ Genomics Workshop, Summer 2026
• Computational Genomics (KIZ, Fall 2024)
• Southwest University R course (Summer, 2019)

Upper-level courses

• BIOL47120 BioMedical Genomics (Spring 2024). Tutorials: R Markdown Cluster analysis single-cell RNA-seq
• BIOL47120 Biomedical Genomics II (Spring, 2020)
• BIOL425 Computational Molecular Biology (Spring, 2023). Lecture material on github
• BIOL425 Computational Molecular Biology (Spring, 2020)
• BIOL714 Cell Biology: R Demo (Spring 2024) R Demo (Spring 2023)
• BIOL37500, Molecular Evolution (Fall, 2019)
• Analysis of Biological Data (Spring, 2017)
• Bioinformatics Workshop (Summer, 2014)

Entry-level courses (lab modules)

• QuBi module: BIOL20300 Molecular Genetics, Lab 12 (2023)
• QuBi module: BIOL20300 Molecular Genetics, Lab 13 (2022)
• QuBi module: BIOL30300 Cell Biology, Bioinformatics Lab (transcriptome analysis)

SARS-CoV-2 genome evolution

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  Akther, Bezrucenkovas, Sulkow, Panlasigui, Qiu, Di (April, 2020). "CoV Genome Tracker: tracing genomic footprints of Covid-19 pandemic". BioRxiv; Web app: SARS-CoV-2 Genome Tracker; Github: https://github.com/weigangq/cov-browser

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  Akther, Li, Martin, Di, Sulkow, Pante, Bezrucenlovas, Luft, Qiu (May, 2020). "Origin, recombination, and missed opprotunities: a genomic perspective of the first 100 days of COVID-19 pandemic". (Unpublished).

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  Akther, Bezrucenlovas, Li, Sulkow, Di, Pante, Martin, Luft, Qiu (Sep, 2021). "Following the Trail of One Million Genomes: Footprints of SARS-CoV-2 Adaptation to Humans". BioRxiv link: . Github: https://github.com/weigangq/cov-db

Lab Resources & Protocols

• OneRF usage (Unofficial; login needed): https://sites.google.com/view/onerf/home
• How to think like a computer scientist: An interactive Python programming book
• Nanopore sequencing protocols
  • DNA barcoding: https://nanopore4edu.org/latest/annotated_experiments/dna_barcoding/
  • Yeast genomes: https://nanoporetech.com/document/extraction-method/yeast-dna
• Monte Carlo Club
• NY-RaMP Mentoring
• Borreliella genome sequencing consortium: Weekly meetings (Tu @11): Since Jan 2023
• Borreliella diagnostic antigens (Fall 2023-Fall 2027):
  • Zoom call (Jan 23, 2024)
  • Next meeting: March 23, 2024
• Qiu lab network first-time user guide
• Qiu lab Github repositories: https://github.com/weigangq/?tab=repositories
• Mini-Protocols (frequently used computer codes and pipelines)
• Python tutorial: https://wiki.genometracker.org/~weigang/Intro_to_Python.html
• ick handling protocols
• Hunter HPC Usage
• R for Data Science (2e), (2024) by Wickham, Grolemund & Çetinkaya-Rundel (Bookdown version)
• Borrelia Genome Consortium: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA431102/
• Canadian Bbsl genome assemblies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/?term=PRJNA1130942
• Nanopore sequencing resources:
  • eBook: https://store.nanoporetech.com/us/minion.html

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