EDBT 2026 Demo / reviewers in the wild / expert
Elaine Li
dblp:253/0659
· DBLP profile ↗
8ranked-venue papers
6as first author
7since 2021 · last 2026
0000-0003-0173-4498ORCID · corroborated
Domains — the database's venue-derived domains; a paper can count in several
Software engineering, systems software and programming languages · 6 · 5 first-author · 5 since 2021Theory of computation · 3 · 3 first-author · 3 since 2021Applied, interdisciplinary, general and emerging computing · 1 · 1 since 2021
| Year | Publication | Venue | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Competing subclones and fitness diversity shape tumor evolution across cancer typesabstractMOTIVATION: Intratumor heterogeneity arises from ongoing somatic evolution and complicates cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Reconstructing evolutionary dynamics typically requires spatiotemporal samples, which are often unavailable in clinical settings. Computational approaches that can infer tumor evolutionary history from single-timepoint bulk sequencing data remain limited. RESULTS: We present estimating evolutionary events through single-timepoint sequencing (TEATIME), a novel computational framework that models tumors as mixtures of two competing cell populations: an ancestral clone with baseline fitness and a derived subclone with elevated fitness. Using cross-sectional bulk sequencing data, TEATIME estimates mutation rates, timing of subclone emergence, relative fitness, and number of generations of growth. To quantify intratumor fitness asymmetries, we introduce a novel metric-fitness diversity-which captures the imbalance between competing cell populations and serves as a measure of functional intratumor heterogeneity. Applying TEATIME to 33 tumor types from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we revealed divergent as well as convergent evolutionary patterns. Notably, we found that immune-hot microenvironments constraint subclonal expansion and limit fitness diversity. Moreover, we detected temporal dependencies in mutation acquisition, where early driver mutations in ancestral clones epistatically shape the fitness landscape, predisposing specific subclones to selective advantages. These findings underscore the importance of intratumor competition and tumor-microenvironment interactions in shaping evolutionary trajectories, driving intratumor heterogeneity. Lastly, we demonstrate that TEATIME-derived evolutionary parameters and fitness diversity offer novel prognostic insights across multiple cancer types. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: R implementation of TEATIME is available on GitHub (https://github.com/liliulab/TEATIME) and Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/records/17422174). Hai Chen, Jingmin Shu, Rekha Mudappathi, Elaine Li, Panwen Wang, Leif Bergsagel, Zhifu Sun, Logan Zhao, Changxin Shi, Jeffrey P. Townsend, Carlo Maley |
Bioinform. | 4 |
| 2026 | Implementability of Global Distributed Protocols Modulo Network ArchitecturesabstractGlobal protocols specify distributed, message-passing protocols from a birds-eye view, and are used as a specification for synthesizing local implementations. Implementability asks whether a given global protocol admits a distributed implementation. We present the first comprehensive investigation of global protocol implementability modulo network architectures. We propose a set of network-parametric Coherence Conditions, and exhibit sufficient assumptions under which it precisely characterizes implementability. We further reduce these assumptions to a minimal set of operational axioms describing insert and remove behavior of individual message buffers. Our reduction immediately establishes that five commonly studied asynchronous network architectures, namely peer-to-peer FIFO, mailbox, senderbox, monobox and bag, are instances of our network-parametric result. We use our characterization to derive optimal complexity results for implementability modulo networks, relationships between classes of implementable global protocols, and symbolic algorithms for deciding implementability modulo networks. We implement the latter in the first network-parametric tool Sprout(A), and show that it achieves network generality without sacrificing performance and modularity. Elaine Li, Thomas Wies |
Proc. ACM Program. Lang. | 1 |
| 2025 | Sprout: A Verifier for Symbolic Multiparty ProtocolsabstractAbstract We present Sprout , the first sound and complete implementability checker for symbolic multiparty protocols. Sprout supports protocols with dependent refinements on message values, loop memory, and multiparty communication with generalized, sender-driven choice. Sprout checks implementability via an optimized, sound and complete reduction to the fixpoint logic $$\mu $$ μ CLP, and uses MuVal as a backend solver for $$\mu $$ μ CLP instances. We evaluate Sprout on an extended benchmark suite of implementable and non-implementable examples, and show that Sprout outperforms its competititors in terms of expressivity and precision, and provides competitive runtime performance. Sprout additionally provides support for verifying custom functional correctness properties beyond implementability. Elaine Li, Felix Stutz, Thomas Wies, Damien Zufferey |
CAV (3) | 1 |
| 2025 | Certified Implementability of Global Multiparty Protocols
Elaine Li, Thomas Wies |
ITP | 1 |
| 2025 | Characterizing Implementability of Global Protocols with Infinite States and DataabstractWe study the implementability problem for an expressive class of symbolic communication protocols involving multiple participants. Our symbolic protocols describe infinite states and data values using dependent refinement predicates. Implementability asks whether a global protocol specification admits a distributed, asynchronous implementation, namely one for each participant, that is deadlock-free and exhibits the same behavior as the specification. We provide a unified explanation of seemingly disparate sources of non-implementability through a precise semantic characterization of implementability for infinite protocols. Our characterization reduces the problem of implementability to (co)reachability in the global protocol restricted to each participant. This compositional reduction yields the first sound and relatively complete algorithm for checking implementability of symbolic protocols. We use our characterization to show that for finite protocols, implementability is co-NP-complete for explicit representations and PSPACE-complete for symbolic representations. The finite, explicit fragment subsumes a previously studied fragment of multiparty session types for which our characterization yields a co-NP decision procedure, tightening a prior PSPACE upper bound. Elaine Li, Felix Stutz, Thomas Wies, Damien Zufferey |
Proc. ACM Program. Lang. | 1 |
| 2024 | Deciding Subtyping for Asynchronous Multiparty SessionsabstractAbstract Multiparty session types (MSTs) are a type-based approach to verifying communication protocols, represented as global types in the framework. We present a precise subtyping relation for asynchronous MSTs with communicating state machines (CSMs) as implementation model. We address two problems: when can a local implementation safely substitute another, and when does an arbitrary CSM implement a global type? We define safety with respect to a given global type, in terms of subprotocol fidelity and deadlock freedom. Our implementation model subsumes existing work which considers local types with restricted choice. We exploit the connection between MST subtyping and refinement to formulate concise conditions that are directly checkable on the candidate implementations, and use them to show that both problems are decidable in polynomial time. Elaine Li, Felix Stutz, Thomas Wies |
ESOP (1) | 1 |
| 2023 | Complete Multiparty Session Type Projection with AutomataabstractAbstract Multiparty session types (MSTs) are a type-based approach to verifying communication protocols. Central to MSTs is a projection operator: a partial function that maps protocols represented as global types to correct-by-construction implementations for each participant, represented as a communicating state machine. Existing projection operators are syntactic in nature, and trade efficiency for completeness. We present the first projection operator that is sound, complete, and efficient. Our projection separates synthesis from checking implementability. For synthesis, we use a simple automata-theoretic construction; for checking implementability, we present succinct conditions that summarize insights into the property of implementability. We use these conditions to show that MST implementability is PSPACE-complete. This improves upon a previous decision procedure that is in EXPSPACE and applies to a smaller class of MSTs. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using a prototype implementation, which handles global types not supported by previous work without sacrificing performance. Elaine Li, Felix Stutz, Thomas Wies, Damien Zufferey |
CAV (3) | 1 |
| 2019 | Pumping, with or Without Choice
Aquinas Hobor, Elaine Li, Frank Stephan 0001 |
APLAS | 2 |