GW Bioinformatics Symposium
The GW Bioinformatics Symposium is a full-day event that unites bioinformatics researchers and faculty from across George Washington University to facilitate networking, cooperation, and information sharing. The program includes research talks, poster sessions, roundtable discussions, and sessions addressing funding, resources, and career paths within the field.
2026 GW Bioinformatics Symposium
Status: Details to be announced — this tab is a placeholder that will be updated as plans are finalized.
Date & Time: TBD
Location: TBD
Description: TBD
Registration: TBD
Agenda
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| TBD | Registration and coffee |
| TBD | Welcome remarks and talks |
| TBD | Refreshment break |
| TBD | Talks and poster flash talks |
| TBD | Lunch and poster judging |
| TBD | Talks and poster flash talks |
| TBD | Roundtable discussion |
| TBD | Networking reception |
Organizing Committee
TBD
Sponsors
TBD
Contact
TBD
2025 Inaugural GW Bioinformatics Symposium
Date & Time: April 29, 2025, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Location:
- Main talks: SEH B1220
- Refreshments, lunch, and posters: Green wall area (SEH B1167)
- Overflow (with live-stream): GWCC 8040 Conference Room
- GWorld card required for entry
Description: The inaugural symposium brought together bioinformatics researchers and faculty from across GW for research presentations, poster sessions, roundtable discussions, and sessions on funding, resources, and career paths.
Registration: Closed as of April 12, 2025. Roughly 130 registrations exceeded the 90-seat capacity of the main venue, so overflow seating with live-streaming was added. The event featured 50+ registered poster presentations from researchers across multiple GW schools and affiliated institutions.
Agenda
Morning session
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 8:30 – 9:00 AM | Registration and coffee |
| 9:00 – 11:00 AM | Welcome remarks, talks, and poster flash talks |
| 11:00 – 11:15 AM | Refreshment break |
| 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM | Talks and a poster flash talk |
| 12:30 – 2:00 PM | Lunch and poster judging |
Afternoon session
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 2:00 – 3:30 PM | Talks, poster flash talks, and remarks from a school administrator |
| 3:30 – 4:30 PM | Roundtable discussions on careers, funding, and IT support; games and award distribution |
| 4:30 – 6:00 PM | Networking reception |
9:00 – 11:00 AM
| Speaker | Department | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| Anelia Horvath | Biochemistry | AI driven Functional SNV Discovery from long read Single-Cell RNA-Seq Data |
| Ljubica Caldovic | Center for Genetic Medicine Research | Active Learning of Data Science and Bioinformatics |
| Muhammad Rahman | Children’s | — |
| Seth Berger | Biochemistry / Pediatrics | Blindspots in Clinical Genetic Testing: Integration of Multiomics to Improve Diagnostic Yields |
| Raja Mazumder | Biochemistry | Integrating Biomedical Knowledgebases and Clinical Data for ML/AI-Powered Insights |
| Yi-Wen Chen | Biochemistry / Pediatrics | From gene to treatment: omics approaches for understanding facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy |
| Aintzane Santaquiteria Gil | Biological Sciences | Using comparative genomics to link genes with convergently evolved traits |
| Marc Garbey | Neurology | Moving towards a digital twin for myasthenia gravis (tentative) |
Poster flash talks: Jane Ulianova, Aiste Gulla
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM
| Speaker | Department | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| Jo Lynne Rokita | Pediatrics | Accelerating discovery and target identification for pediatric brain tumors through open-source platforms and tools |
| Max Alekseyev | Mathematics / Biostatistics | Bioinformatics Meets Quantum Informatics: from Genome Rearrangements to Weingarten Calculus |
| Erika Hubbard | Bioinformatics and Biostatistics | Machine Learning to Determine Endotypes of Lupus |
| Ali R. Taheriyoun | Biostatistics and Bioinformatics | Dynamics of Gut Microbiome and Metabolome of Moderate and Severe Obesity Patients Under Sleeve Gastrectomy |
| Hiroki Morizono | Center for Genetic Medicine Research | — |
Poster flash talk: Vania Ballesteros Prieto
2:00 – 3:30 PM
| Speaker | Department | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| Mohammad Hammas Saeed | Electrical and Computer Engineering | AI for Good: Leveraging Graph-Based Methods and Large Language Models to Address Real-World Challenges |
| Nan Wu | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Directed Graph Representation Learning for Circuits, Boolean Networks, and Beyond |
| Aya Zirikly | Computer Science (GW / Johns Hopkins) | Developments in NLP and AI for Mental Health: Insights from the Last Decade and Future Directions — A Focus on the CLPsych Workshop |
| Chen Zeng | Physics | Modeling RNA-protein Interactions with network guided machine learning |
| Weiqun Peng | Physics | Finding structures and their associated functions in genome wide profiles of chromatin architecture |
| Shekhar Nagar | Biological Sciences | Metabolic flexibility and dissemination of antibiotic resistomes from Actinobacteria in Hawaii hydrothermal steam vents |
Poster flash talks: Chelcie Puetz, Kai Leung (Adam) Wong
Featured Speakers
Rong Li (Department Chair, Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine), Alison Hall (Senior Associate Dean for Research, SMHS), Raja Mazumder (Symposium Chair), Anelia Horvath, Evangeline J. Downie (Associate Dean for Research, CCAS)
Organizing Committee
Scientific committee: Raja Mazumder (Chair), Anelia Horvath, Hiroki Morizono, Ljubica Caldovic, Keith Crandall, Jorge Sepulveda, Howie Huang, Chen Zeng, Jimmy Saw, Clark Gaylord
Logistics committee: Raja Mazumder, Anelia Horvath, Raechelle McCants, Jewel Dias, and student volunteers
Sponsors
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine (beverages, meals, prizes); Institute of Biomedical Sciences (poster boards); Milken Institute School of Public Health (networking reception, prizes)
Contact
Raja Mazumder — mazumder@gwu.edu