Members

Yi Zhang, PhD

I’m an Assistant Professor at Duke University School of Medicine in the Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. I obtained BS from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and PhD in Bioengineering with Dr. Jun S. Song at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). I did postdoc at Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University School of Public Health. I have been developing integrative genomic methods to identify functional gene regulatory mechanisms behind disease-associated human genetic variants. I have also recently been developing statistical, machine learning, and artificial intelligence methods that leverage large-scale single-cell datasets to understand cell states in tumor microenvironment. My ongoing work include deep learning modeling of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and statistical models that combines statistical genetics and functional genomics. For fun, I enjoy running, hiking, music and wildlife photography.


Email: yi.zhang [at] duke [dot] edu

Address: Duke University MSRB1 199B, 203 Research Dr, Durham, NC 27705


Chuhanwen Sun

My name is Chuhanwen (Silas) Sun, currently a visiting research intern in Yi’s lab through Aug 2024, as part of my Master program study at Karolinska Institute. I graduated from Tsinghua University with degree in Life Sciences. I am eager to enhance my research capabilities, focusing specifically on data-driven disease research, particularly in the realms of disease diagnosis and treatment. In my free time, I enjoy basketball, gym working out and film photography.


Seung Hyun Jin

I am a first-year Duke Undergraduate student majoring in Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Statistical Science. I am a research intern in Zhang lab starting summer 2024. My areas of interest converge in AI and ML in biological spaces, specifically, in cells. I am always intrigued excited to learn about applications of machine learning in different fields.


Zijia Tang

My name is Zijia (Thomas) Tang, and I am a research intern in Yi’s lab starting June 2024. I am a freshman at Duke University starting in September 2024. My research interests lie in computational biology and machine learning. Previously, I delved into single-cell perturbation, employing Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) to predict cellular responses to perturbations. I’m eager to increase the interpretability of my previous work and learn ways to combine privileged information and new information found by neural networks. In my free time, I enjoy playing drums, exercising, and reading science fiction.


Alumni

Name Role Current status
Yijia Alva Jiang Master student, Harvard DBMI, Shirley Liu lab Bioinformatics Analyst, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Jack Jiajinlong Kang Master student, Harvard CBQG, Shirley Liu lab PhD student, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Yingxiao Shi PhD student, Harvard BBS, Shirley Liu lab PhD student, Harvard & Dana-Farber Cancer Institute