Dr. Yuriy Fofanov is Associate Professor of Computer Science, Biology and Biochemistry, and director of the University of Houston Bioinformatics lab. Since 2001 his lab had conducted research in the area of analysis of statistical properties of short subsequences (n-mers) in microbial genomes and their link to pathogen evolution and identification.

During the last seven years Dr. Fofanov’s lab has developed several highly efficient algorithms and software applications for the analysis of genomic sequences in addition to creating and maintaining significant data collections of more than 100,000 complete genome sequences. The primary focus has been to develop new pathogen detection technologies and increase general understandings of virulence and dynamic of the host-pathogen interaction. Dr. Fofanov’s research is supported by various federal (NIH, DHS, W. M. Keck foundation) and local (Texas Learning and Computational Center) sources.

Mentor to a number of master's degree students, Dr. Fofanov has written several book chapters and journal articles and delivered guest lectures at universities and conferences worldwide. Along with his fellow research Dr. Lennart Johnsson, Fofanov was a recipient of an Honorable Mention in the humanitarian impact category in the 2007 Itanium Solutions Alliance global contest. He holds a PhD in mathematics and physics from the University of Kuibyshev (Samara) State University in the Russian Federation.