Update: I graduated and moved to the Simons Center for Quantitative Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This website is no longer updated.

Welcome

I am a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University. My research interests are in computational biology and bioinformatics. I work on scalable phylogenetic analysis and functional interpretation of genomes with complex evolutionary histories.


Publications

Hejase, H.A., VandePol, N., Bonito, G.A., Liu, K.J. (2017), FastNet: fast and accurate inference of phylogenetic networks using large-scale genomic sequence data. [doi: 10.1101/132795]

Hejase, H.A., VandePol, N., Bonito, G.A., Edger, P.P., Liu, K.J. (2017), Coal-Miner: A statistical method for GWA studies of quantitative traits with complex evolutionary origins. In Proceedings of the 8th ACM International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics (pp. 107-114). ACM. [doi: 10.1145/3107411.3107490]

Hejase, H.A., Liu, K.J. (2016), A scalability study of phylogenetic network inference methods using empirical datasets and simulations involving a single reticulation. BMC Bioinformatics 17(1):422. [doi: 10.1186/s12859-016-1277-1]

Hejase, H.A., Liu, K.J. (2016), Mapping the genomic architecture of adaptive traits with interspecific introgressive origin: A coalescent-based approach. BMC Genomics. 17(1):8. [doi: 10.1186/s12864-015-2298-2]

Hejase, A.J., Hejase, H.J., Hejase H.A. (2015), Gender Wage Gap in Lebanon: Explorative Analysis. Journal of Applied Economics and Business Research. 5(1):1-19. [Link]

Hejase, H.A., Chan, C. (2015), Improving Drug Sensitivity Prediction Using Different Types of Data. CPT Pharmacometrics Syst. Pharmacol. 4:98-105. [doi: 10.1002/psp4.2 / PubMedID: 2622523]

Bansal, M., NCI-DREAM consortium, et al. (2014), A Community Computational Challenge to Predict the Activity of Pairs of Compounds. Nature Biotechnology. 32(12):1213-1222. [doi: 10.1038/nbt.3052 / PubMedID: 25419740]

Costello, J.C., NCI-DREAM consortium, et al. (2014), A Community Effort to Assess and Improve Drug Sensitivity Prediction Algorithms. Nature Biotechnology. 32(12):1202-1212. [doi: 10.1038/nbt.2877 / PubMedID: 24880487]

Hijazi, H., Chan, C. (2013), A Classification Framework Applied to Cancer Gene Expression Profiles. Journal of Healthcare Engineering. 4(2):255-283. [doi: 10.1260/2040-2295.4.2.255 / PubMedID: 23778014]

Wu, M., Liu, L., Hijazi, H., Chan, C. (2013), A Multi-Layer Inference Approach to Reconstruct Condition-Specific Genes and their Regulation. Bioinformatics. 29(12):1541-1552. [doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btt186 / PubMedID: 23610368]

Hijazi, H., Wu, M., Nath, A., Chan, C. (2012), Ensemble Classification of Cancer Types and Biomarker Identification. Drug Dev. Res.. 73(7):414-419. [doi: 10.1002/ddr.21032 / PubMedID: 25221378]


Teaching

Computing Concepts and Competencies (Fa13, Sp14)

Introduction to Programming II (Fa14)


Awards & Activities

Outstanding Graduate Student Award - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - 2017

Travel award (500$) from BEACON to attend the Evolution conference - Austin, TX - 2016

Travel award (500$) from National Science Foundation to attend the Phylogenomics Symposium and Software School - Austin, TX - 2016

Best poster award (1st place) - Engineering Graduate Research Symposium (EGRS) - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - 2016

Travel award (1050$) from Michigan State University to attend the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Conference - San Francisco, CA - 2016

Graduate student representative - Graduate Studies and Research Committee - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - August 2015 - May 2016

Best poster award (1st place) - Engineering Graduate Research Symposium (EGRS) - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - 2015

Travel award (500$) sponsored by the National Science Foundation for the species-tree workshop at the society for systematic biology standalone meeting - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI - 2015

Travel award (500$) sponsored by the National Science Foundation for the symposium and software school focusing on new methods for phylogenomics and metagenomics - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI - 2015

Graduate student representative - Computing Environment Committee - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - August 2011 - May 2012

Global neighbors scholarship (8000$) - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - 2009, 2010 & 2011

Global spartan scholarship (1000$) - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - 2009 & 2010

Dean's list - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI - 2009, 2010 & 2011