Assistant Professor Zhengqing Ouyang, Ph.D. received a one-year, $100,000 Research Starter Grant in Informatics from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America (PhRMA) Foundation. The highly competitive grant is for faculty members launching independent research careers in computational biology and bioinformatics, sustaining the ability of young investigators to perform excellent research as they work to procure significant NIH funding and other support.
Ouyang is working at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine to develop advanced quantitative methods to help interpret the data flowing from next-generation sequencing as well as other genome-scale technologies. In addition to honing these tools, he is working to reveal the structures and functions of non-coding RNAs on a genome-wide scale. In particular, he seeks to understand regulatory elements in long non-coding RNAs and their roles in human biology and disease.
The mission of the PhRMA Foundation is to support young scientists in disciplines important to the pharmaceutical industry by awarding them competitive research fellowships and grants at a critical time at the outset of their careers. The program’s goal is to help to build a larger pool of highly-trained, top-quality scientists to help meet the growing needs of scientific and academic institutions, government and the research-intensive pharmaceutical industry.