Visiting Scientist — Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics

Wen Zou, Ph.D.
(870) 543-7121
[email protected]  

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About  |  Publications 

Background

Dr. Wen Zou received her Bachelor's of Science in microbiology and Master's of Science in molecular microbiology from Shandong University, China. Dr. Zou received her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular microbiology from Kyoto University in Japan, after a two year postdoctoral experience at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She joined NCTR in 2006 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Microbiology. Dr. Zou was appointed as a visiting scientist in 2009 in the Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (previously the Division of Personalized Nutrition and Medicine). She has received several awards for her work at FDA, including the “NCTR Director’s Award,” and “NCTR Outstanding Service Award.”

Research Interests

Dr. Zou's research expertise in broad scientific areas include microbiology, molecular biology, food safety, bioinformatics, statistics, text mining, and data mining. Her primary research is in the areas of:

• Microbial next-generation sequencing data analysis and data mining
• Safety-signal detection from FDA Spontaneous Reporting Systems (SRSs) and Electronic Health Records
• Big-data analysis and visualization on knowledge discovering and safety-signal detection

Dr. Zou has been a Principal Investigator (PI), Co-PI, or participating scientist in more than ten research projects at NCTR and with other FDA Centers. Currently, she is the PI for two projects:

• Developing a novel data-mining and data-visualization method for safety surveillance of the FDA adverse event reporting systems
• Bioinformatics methodology development for microbial next-generation sequencing data analysis and data mining

Professional Societies/National and International Groups

American Society for Microbiology
Member
2006 – Present

Sigma Xi
Member
2011 – 2015

International Association for Food Protection
Member
2013 – Present

Chinese Association for Food Protection in North America
Board member
2014 – Present

Global Coalition for Regulatory Science Research (GCRSR) Bioinformatics Technical Group
Member
2014 – Present

Select Publications

Publication titles are linked to text abstracts on PubMed.

Mechanistic roles of MicroRNAs in Hepatocarcinogenesis : A Study of Thioacetamide with Multiple Doses and Time-Points of Rats.
Dweep H., Morikawa Y., Gong B., Yan J., Liu Z., Chen T., Bisgin H., Zou W., Hong H., Shi T., Gong P., Castro C., Uehara T., Wang Y., and Tong W. 
Scientific Reports, 2017, volume 7, Article number: 3054.
 

Best Setting of Model Parameters in Applying Topic Modeling on Textual Documents.
Zou W., Zhao W., Chen J.J., and Perkins P.  
Proceedings of the 8th ACM International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics, 2017. 
 

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Mediated Through Binding Androgen Receptor are Associated with Diabetes mellitus. 
Sakkiah S., Wang T., Zou W., Wang Y., Pan B., Tong W., and Hong H.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017,15(1). pii: E25. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15010025. 
 

A Novel Procedure on Next Generation Sequencing Data Analysis Using Text Mining Algorithm. 
Zhao W., Chen J.J., Perkins P., Liu Z., Wang Y., Hong H., Tong W., and Zou W*.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2016, 17:213, DOI 10.1186/s12859-016-1075-9.
 

Text Mining for Identifying Topics in the Literatures About Adolescent Substance Use and Depression.
Wang, S.H., Ding Y., Zhao W., Yu K., Huang Y.X., Perkins R., Zou W., and Chen J.J.
BMC Public Health. 2016, 16:279, DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-2932-1. 
 

Biomarker Identification from Next-Generation Sequencing Data for Pathogen Bacteria Characterization and Surveillance.
Zhao W., Chen J.J., Foley S., Wang Y., Basinger J., and Zou W. 
Biomarkers in Medicine. 2015, doi:10.2217/bmm.15.88.
 

Molecular Regulation of MiRNAs and Potential Biomarkers in the Progression of Hepatic Steatosis to NASH.
Wang Y., Liu Z., Zou W., Hong H., Fang H., and Tong W.
Biomarkers in Medicine. 2015, doi:10.2217/bmm.15.70.
 

A Heuristic Approach to Determine an Appropriate Number of Topics in Topic Modeling.
Zhao W., Chen J.J., Liu Z., Ge W., Ding Y., and Zou W.
BMC Bioinformatics Proceedings. 2015, 16 Suppl 14:S8.
 

Statistics in Big Data.
Chen J.J., Chen E.E., Zhao W., and Zou W.
Journal of the Chinese Statistical Association. 2015, Vol. 53:1-17.
 

Asymmetric Author-Topic Model for Knowledge Discovering of Big Data in Toxicogenomics.
Chung M.H., Wang Y., Tang H., Zou W., Basinger J., Xu X., and Tong W.
Front Pharmacol. 2015, 6:81. doi:10.3389/fphar.2015.00081. eCollection.
 

Differential Gene Expression in Staphylococcus sureus Exposed to Orange II and Sudan III Azo Dyes.
Pan H.M., Xu J., Kweon O.G., Zou W., Feng J.H., He G.X., Cerniglia C.E., and Chen H.Z.
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology. 2015, 42(5):745-57. doi: 10.1007/s10295-015-1599-4. Epub 2015 Feb 27.
 

A Composite Prediction Model for Subgroup Identification via Bicluster Analysis.
Chen H.C., Zou, W., Tien Y.J., Lu T.P., and Chen J.J.
PLoS One. 2014, 9(10): e111318. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111318.
 

Topic Modeling for Cluster Analysis of Large Biological and Medical Datasets.
Zhao W., Zou W., and Chen J.J. 
BMC Bioinformatics. 2014, 15(Suppl 11):S11 doi:10.1186/1471-2105-15-S11-S11.
 

Data Mining Tools for Salmonella Characterization: Application to Gel-Based Fingerprinting Analysis.
Zou W., Tang H., Zhao W., Meehan J., Foley S.L., Lin W.J., Chen H.C., Fang H., Nayak R., and Chen J.J.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2013, 14(Suppl 14):S15.
 

Identification of Bicluster Regions in a Binary Matrix and its Application.
Chen H.C., Zou W., Tien Y.J., and Chen J.J.
PLoS ONE. 2013, 8(8): e71680. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071680.
 

Meta-Analysis of Pulse-Field Gel Electrophoresis Fingerprints Based on a Constructed Salmonella Database.
Zou W., Chen H.C., Hise K.B., Tang H., Foley S., Meeham J., Lin W.J., Nayak R., Xu J., Fang H., and Chen J.J.
PLoS ONE. 2013 8(3): e59224. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059224.
 

A Prediction System for Rapid Identification of Salmonella Serotypes Based on the Pulse-Field Gel Electrophoresis Fingerprints.
Zou W., Lin W.J., Hise K.B., Chen H.C., Keys C., and Chen, J.J.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2012, 50:1524-1532.
 

Microarray Analysis of Virulence Gene Profiles in Salmonella Serovars from Food/Food Animal Environment.
Zou W., Al-Khaldi S.F., Branham W.S., Han T., Fuscoe J.C., Han J., Foley S.L., Xu J., Hong F., Cerniglia C.E., and Nayak R. 
Journal of Infection in Developing Countries. 2011, 5:94-105. 
 

Evaluation of Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Profiles for Identification of Salmonella Serotypes.
Zou W., Lin W.J., Foley S.L., Chen C.H., Nayak R., and Chen J.J.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2010, 48:3122–3126.
 

An FDA Bioinformatics Tool for Microbial Genomics Research on Molecular Characterization of Bacterial Foodborne Pathogens using Microarrays.
Fang H., Xu J., Ding D., Jackson S.A., Patel I.R., Frye J.G., Zou W., Nayak R., Foley S., Chen J., Su Z., Ye Y., Turner S., Harris S., Zhou G., Cerniglia C.E., and Tong W.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2010, 11:S4.
 

Metabolism of Azo Dyes by Human Skin Microbiota.
Stingley R.L., Zou W, Heinze T.M., Chen H., and Cerniglia C.E. 
Journal of Medical Microbiology. 2010, 59:108–114.
 

Microarray Analysis of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Salmonella from Preharvest Poutry Environment.
Zou W., Frye J.G., Chang C.W., Liu J.J., Cerniglia C.E., and Nayak R.
Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2009, 107:906-914.
 

Azoreductase from Staphylococcus aureus. 
Zou, W., Cerniglia C.E., and Chen H.
Current Protocols in Toxicology. 2009, 41:4.28.1-4.28.9.