DBBS mentors and educators are key to our training mission. Those who serve as primary mentors are DBBS Program Members, and others who participate in the educational mission are General Members. Learn about DBBS Faculty Membership »
To provide a supportive learning environment for our trainees, many DBBS-affiliated faculty have completed eight or more hours of CIMER-based mentorship training with a trained facilitator, as indicated below with a profile badge.
Find faculty of interest by entering a name, program or expertise keyword in the search bar; selecting a PhD program from the drop-down menu; or selecting the last name initial from the A-Z filter.
Adam Wilcox, PhD
Professor
- Email: a.wilcox@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Research summary
Key words
Laura Wiley, PhD
Associate Professor
- Email: lkwiley@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Research summary
Our lab develops and applies informatics methods to support clinical research and learning health systems across a range of neurological and chronic disease domains. Core research areas include **computational phenotyping**, where we focus on developing, evaluating, and critically appraising algorithms that identify patient populations from large-scale EHR data; **real-world evidence generation**, where we build automated pipelines and predictive models that translate clinical data into actionable insights for care and research; and **research infrastructure for learning health systems**, where we design and evaluate the data harmonization pipelines, classification tools, and integration methods that make large-scale clinical research possible. Across all of these areas, we maintain a strong emphasis on algorithmic equity, examining how methods perform across demographic subgroups and surfacing structural disparities in access and care. These methods are applied to a broad set of clinically significant conditions—including diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, movement disorders, and epilepsy—that share common informatics challenges such as diagnostic uncertainty, heterogeneous data, and underrepresented populations. Trainees gain hands-on experience in EHR-based cohort construction, multimodal data integration, algorithm development and validation, and the translation of informatics tools into practice, with opportunities to collaborate with clinical experts across these domains.
Key words
precision medicine, ehr, data science, phenotyping, informatics
Philip Williams, PhD
Assistant Professor
- Email: prwillia@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Research summary
Strategies to improve outcomes of nervous system injury and disease, regeneration and preservation
Key words
David Wilson, MD, PhD
Professor
- Email: wilson_d@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Research summary
Role of transcription factors in differentiation and development
Key words
embryonic development, lung development, mouse models, transcriptional regulation
Michael Wong, MD, PhD
Professor
- Email: wong_m@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Research summary
Mechanisms of epileptogenesis and seizure-induced brain injury
Key words
epilepsy, glia, imaging, multi-photon microscopy, neurophysiology
Matthew Wood, PhD
Assistant Professor
- Email: woodmd@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Molecular Cell Biology
Neurosciences
Research summary
Repair and regeneration following nerve injury and soft tissue injury
Key words
Plastic Surgery, Peripheral nerve, Regeneration, Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials
Gregory Wu, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
- Email: gfwu@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Immunology
Neurosciences
Research summary
Inflammation and autoimmunity of the central nervous system
Key words
antigen presentation, dendritic cells, B cells, immunology, intravital microscopy, multiple sclerosis, neurobiology
Meng Wu, PhD
Assistant Professor
- Email: mengwu@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Immunology
Computational and Systems Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Research summary
We investigate the interplay among the microbiota, stromal cells, and the immune system through the integration of microbiology and immunology with systems biology.
Key words
Microbiota, Microbiome, Immune system, Stromal cells, Vaccines, Germinal Centers
Kristine Wylie, PhD
Associate Professor
- Email: kwylie@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Immunology
Computational and Systems Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Research summary
Host-microbe dynamics during pregnancy
Key words
virome, microbiome, pregnancy, papillomavirus, herpesvirus
Jinbin Xu, PhD
Associate Professor
- Email: jinbinxu@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Neurosciences
Molecular Cell Biology
Cancer Biology
Research summary
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, central nervous disorders, postmortem biomarker validation and characterization, in vivo positron emission tomography, in vitro quantitative autoradiography
Key words
Imaging, biomarkers, cancer, neuroscience, PET, quantitative autoradiography, pharmaceuticals, biological assays, human brain function and disease
Dmitriy Yablonskiy, PhD
Professor
- Email: yablonskiyd@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Research summary
Development and applications of quantitative MRI-based methods and Machine Learning tools for in vivo studying of humans and animals in health and disease
Key words
brain structure and function, Alzheimer`s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, MRI, fMRI, GEPCI, hyperpolarized gas, biophysics, mathematical modeling, Machine Learning
Tatyana Yakusheva, PhD
Assistant Professor
- Email: yakushevat@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Research summary
Understanding the role of the cerebellar nodulus and uvula (NU) in motion perception and spatial navigation
Key words
Lan Yang, PhD
Associate Professor
- Email: lyang25@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Research summary
We develop various light-wave based technologies, such as novel sensors, spectroscopy and imaging systems, for biological and medical applications.
Key words
nanotechnology, photonics, material physics, biosensing, spectroscopy, imaging
Elizabeth Yanik, PhD
Assistant Professor
- Email: yanike@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Human and Statistical Genetics
Research summary
My research is focused on investigating the genetic determinants of under-studied musculoskeletal phenotypes, determining the impact of occupational burdens on musculoskeletal disease, and understanding interactions between genetic and non-genetic risk factors for musculoskeletal disease.
Key words
Hiroko Yano, PhD
Associate Professor
- Email: yanoh@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Molecular Cell Biology
Research summary
Molecular pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases
Key words
Huntington’s disease, neurodegeneration, molecular mechanisms, epigenetic regulation, gene expression, primary neuron culture, animal models of disease
Po-Yin Yen, PhD
Associate Professor
- Email: yenp@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Research summary
Focused on applied clinical informatics research to support clinicians adapting to health information technology
Key words
Jason Yi, PhD
Assistant Professor
- Email: jasonyi@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Molecular Cell Biology
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Research summary
Understanding the mechanisms of nervous system construction and dysfunction.
Key words
Wayne Yokoyama, MD
Sam J. Levin and Audrey Loew Levin Professor
- Email: yokoyama@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Immunology
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Research summary
Host innate immune responses to tumors and pathogens
Key words
cancer, immunology, innate immunity, NK cells, tumor biology, virology
Andrew Yoo, PhD
Professor
- Email: yooa@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Neurosciences
Research summary
Generation of human neurons by direct cell fate reprogramming and modeling late-onset neurodegenerative disorders
Key words
neurodegeneration, neurogenesis, microRNA, cellular reprogramming, disease modeling, chromatin, regenerative medicine
Takeshi Yoshimatsu, PhD
Assistant Professor
- Email: takeshi@wustl.edu
Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Research summary
Development and function of the visual system in vertebrates
Key words
Vision, Retina, Development, Zebrafish, Lizard