New investigator: Shibiao Wan, PhD

This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony on Nov. 14 for UNMC’s Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator Award recipients.

• Name: Shibiao Wan, PhD
• Title: Assistant professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy, UNMC College of Medicine
• Joined UNMC: October 2022
• Hometown: Wuhan, China

Describe your research focus in three words or less: 

Machine learning, bioinformatics and cancer research

Why is research important in the world today? 

With the avalanche of bulk, single-cell and spatial multi-omics data and the explosion of multi-modal medical imaging data and heterogeneous electronic health records, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as bioinformatics, have become essential to facilitate investigating various aspects of human diseases, such as cancer research, disease diagnosis, therapeutic design and drug discovery.

My research will make a difference because:

With an interdisciplinary training background in both data science and biology, I explore machine learning and bioinformatics methods through my research to develop efficient computational models for single-cell analysis, multi-omics analysis, spatial multi-omics, cancer research, intelligent health care and precision medicine. By integrating multimodal data from omics data, imaging data and electronic health records data, we can develop accurate and efficient AI/ML and bioinformatics models and tools for disease diagnosis and prognosis, treatment response prediction, health disparities reduction, drug design and precision medicine.

The best advice I’ve ever received is: 

“Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst and unsurprised by anything in between.” – Maya Angelou

Three things you may not know about me are:

• I got my bachelor’s degree in telecommunication engineering, which has little connection with biology or life science.
• I play Chinese chess, Go and international chess.
• Besides English and Mandarin, I can speak Japanese and Cantonese.