Faculty Member Photo: 

Conducting research in the field of bioinformatics, Dr. Wang explores the visual representation of DNA, specifically the method known as Chaos Game epresentation. This method is useful in researching very long sequences of DNA, including entire genomes.

Experiences

• Assistant Professor, University of Prince Edward Island (Aug. 2004 - Present)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Western Ontario (2003-2004)
• Lecturer, University of Waterloo (1999)
• Associate Professor, Harbin Institute of Technology, China (1991-1997)
• Assistant Professor, Harbin Institute of Technology, China (1987-1991)

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Research Interests

I am currently conducting research in the field of bioinformatics. This is essentially a cross between biology and computer science. My particular interest evolved as a result of my trying to interpret very long DNA sequences. The information is so long that it is hard to interpret without some sort of visual representation, which is what I am exploring. Currently, there are several ways to visually represent DNA, but I am investigating a method known as CGR (chaos game representation). This method displays the primary DNA sequence organization for a sequence of any length, including entire genomes.

The goal of my research is to compare similarities and differences between species using bioinformatics. This is useful for classifying species in a phylogenetic tree. I am trying to find genomic signatures that can relate two species based on similar DNA. In other words, finding a genomic signature is finding something specific to a species, distinguishing it from all other species. The CGR method visually shows these genomic signatures. When comparing two species that share similar DNA, one can see the similarities in patterns making a definite link between the two.I am applying my newly developed techniques in bioinformatics to the phylogenetic analysis of the Potato Virus Y population (PVY). On Prince Edward Island, potatoes are one of the main agricultural crops grown, and the PVY virus has many strains, some of which are highly destructive and pathogenic to potatoes, and some of which are harmless. I am working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to better understand the evolutionary pathway of this virus. I am trying to identify the relationships among PVY virus strains. The genetic relationships among Canadian PVY strains and strain types are poorly understood and there is a need to identify the origin, spread, and the evolutionary pathway of PVY in Canada.

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Recent Publications

[1] Frederick S.B. Kibenge, Molly J.T. Kibenge, Yingwei Wang, Biao Qian, Shebel Hariharan, and Sandi McGeachy, Correlates of virulence of infectious salmon anaemia virus. OIE Global Conference on Aquatic Animal Health, Bergen, Norway, October 2006.

[2] Molly T. Kibenge, Yingwei Wang, Biao Qian, Sandi McGeachy, Frederick Kibenge, Virulence Phenotypes of Infectious Salmon Anaemia Virus (ISAV), 5th International Symposium on Aquatic Animal Health B ISAAH, San Francisco Marriott, San Francisco, California, USA, September 2006

[3] Wang, Y., Hale, L., Hill, K., Singh, S.: Mining invariants in biological sequences. In Workshop Proceedings: Petra Perner (Ed.), Workshop on Data Mining in Life Sciences, DMLS2006, IBaI CD-Report, ISSN 1617-2671, July 2006, p. 111-118.

[4] Yingwei Wang, Kathleen Hill, Shiva Singh, and Lila Kari. The spectrum of genomic signatures: from dinucleotides to chaos game representation. GENE, 346:173-185, 2005. (Journal Impact Factor: 2.778. Available online at ScienceDirect - Gene - List of Issues)

Teaching
IT205 Web-based Application Development and Programming (moodle login)
CS352 Operating Systems (moodle login)

CS322/BIO322 Introduction to Bioinformatics (moodle login)
CS206/IT306 Advanced Web Development and Programming (moodle login)
IT121 Introduction to Computer Programming (moodle login)

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A dynamic learning environment has been built for each of the above courses using moodle system.� To login to a dynamic learning environment for the first time, an enrollment key is needed. Students will obtain their enrollment keys in their first classes.

Teaching Profile (courses taught)

Services

• Library Coordinator

  The Safari online books (choose academic license, no user login required) and online journals in our library may be helpful in your teaching, research, and study. If faculty members, staff, and students in our department cannot find the right book in the online book collection, please check The Complete Safari Book Title List. If you are interested in a particular book, please contact me. I may be able to help you to access that book.

Please logout after you finished using Safari online books because at any time only 2 users are allowed to login this service.

• University Internationalization Committee

If you have any comments related to internationalization, such as mobility opportunities, recruitment, and so on, please contact me.

• Department Program Committee
• Department Review Committee

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