Michael Love

Dr. Michael Love serves as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Biostatistics and Genetics at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, where he also directs the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology PhD program. After completing his BS in Mathematics and MS in Statistics from Stanford University, he earned his PhD in Computational Biology from Freie Universität Berlin in 2013. His research focuses on developing statistical and computational methods for analyzing high-throughput sequencing data, particularly through his widely-used DESeq2 package for RNA sequencing analysis. As director of the Love Lab, he collaborates extensively with the Genetics Department and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, studying relationships between genetic variants and disease-related molecular changes. His expertise spans gene regulation, neuropsychiatric disorders, cancer genomics, and statistical software development. His contributions to the field have earned him multiple honors, including the UNC Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility Recruitment Award and the Junior Faculty Development Award. Currently, he leads a $9.25 million NIH-funded study as part of the Impact of Genomic Variation on Function consortium, working to understand how genomic variation influences human health and disease.