Boran Gao

Title:

Assistant Professor

PhD Granting Institution:

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Contact:

Email Address: gao824@purdue.edu
Office Phone: 765-496-4265
Lab Website Link: https://borangao.github.io/

Primary Training Group:

Computational and Systems Biology

Research Areas:

Statistical Genetics and Genomics

Current Projects:

My research interests focus on developing statistical methods and computational tools to address pivotal biological questions emerging from large scale and high-dimensional data, such as biobank level genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and various functional genomic data, including transcriptomics and proteomics. Most of these data predominantly feature European populations, leaving non-European populations underrepresented. In response to this disparity, a particular emphasis of my work is on underrepresented populations. I am devoted to advancing the genetic understanding of complex traits through the development of statistical methods and computational tools that are inclusive of multiple ancestries. Through this approach, my goal is to not only address the broad biological questions that emerge from expansive data but also to bridge the gap in genetic research, fostering inclusivity and equity in scientific discovery. In particular, the methodological aspects of my past and current work center on three areas: (1) developing efficient and powerful statistical methods to unravel the shared genetic basis across diverse traits and ancestries in GWASs. (2) developing a powerful and scalable statistical method for multi-ancestry fine-mapping. (3) developing a powerful and scalable statistical method for multi-ancestry colocalization that integrates GWASs with bulk RNA-seq. Moving forward, I envision my research endeavors developing statistical methods motivated by significant challenges in GWAS and multi-omics data, with a particular focus on underrepresented populations.