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To promote informatics literacy, Hamilton was awarded with a NSF Class Curriculum & Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant to establish and to improve its bioinformatics curriculum. Assistant Professor of Biology Wei-Jen Chang presented Hamilton's five years outcome and achievements at the conference, which was sponsored by AAAS and NSF. He joined other grant awardees from more than 200 U.S, colleges and shared the experience of teaching bioinformatics at small liberal arts institutions. The conference was held in August in Washington, D.C.

Assistant Professor of Biology Wei-Jen Chang co-authored a paper titled "The pathway to detangle scrambled genes" in the journal PLoS ONE. This interdisciplinary, collaborative research attempted to decipher pathways for piecing correct DNA segments together in protozoan ciliates.

Assistant Professor of Biology Wei-Jen Chang represented Hamilton's Sigma Xi chapter in the Sigma Xi annual business meeting held in Orlando from Nov. 1 - 4. Sigma Xi is a scientific research society founded in 1886. Hamilton College chapter members include faculty at several local colleges, institutions in other regions, scientists in non-academic roles, and loyal alumni.

Wei-Jen Chang, assistant professor of biology, published work in the open-access journal Biology Direct. His article, titled "Intron Evolution and Information processing in the DNA polymerase alpha gene in spirotrichous ciliates: A hypothesis for interconversion between DNA and RNA deletion," is co-authored by scholars from Sweden and from Princeton University. Two former Princeton undergraduate students were also involved in this project, which used computer programs to help analyze empirical data.

Wei-Jen Chang, assistant professor of biology, gave a talk in the Asa Gray Seminar series held by the Biology department of Utica College on February 26. His talk, titled "Genome Organization in Spirotrichous Ciliates (Protozoa)," summarized progresses made toward understanding the complicated genome architectures found in unicellular organisms - ciliates. He also discussed ongoing research projects in his lab with faculty and students in Utica College.