[Publications] [Google Scholar] [GitHub] [Twitter].

About Me:

I am a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan, under supervision of Prof. Xiang Zhou, focusing on developing statistical methods for genetic and genomic datasets. I also worked closely with Prof. Jennifer Smith in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan on large-scale quantitative trait mapping in African Americans in the GENOA study. Prior to that, I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Biology from the Zhiyuan Honored College at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Research Interests:

My research interest is in developing effective and efficient statistical and machine learning methods in single cell and spatial transcriptomics to address critical biological problems such as omics data dimension reduction and integration. My specific focus includes: 1). developing statistical and computational methods for data analysis in single-cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics; 2). Bridging between population-level genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and individual-level single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data to unravel the underlying mechanisms of disease etiology; 3). Integrating multi-omics data with patient outcomes to foster translational research, ultimately connecting molecular insights with clinical applications.

Keywords:

• Statistical Methods: High-dimensional data analysis, mixed effects models, longitudinal data analysis, spatial statistics, non-parametric models, dimension reduction, data integration, statistical computing, network analysis, and machine learning (including deep learning).
• Applications: High dimensional genetic and genomic data including spatial transcriptomics, single cell RNA sequencing studies, spatial and single cell multi-omics, genome-wide association studies, genome-wide quantitative loci mapping, methylation studies, and gene regulatory network.

Funding

• Institutional Research Grant, $75k direct cost, 2/1/2025-1/31/2026 (Awarded to top 20 proposals among all faculty applicants at MD Anderson)

Selected Awards

• IMS New Researcher Travel Grant Award, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 2024
• ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, 2024 (Awarded to top 10 Ph.D. dissertations among 800+ applicants, the first recipient in the Department of Biostatistics since 2007)
• Charles J. Epstein Trainee Awards, Predoctoral semifinalist, American Society of Human Genetics, 2022
• Reviewer’s Choice Poster Award, American Society of Human Genetics, 2021
• Excellence in Research Award Honorable Mention, Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, 2020
• Most Interesting Methodological Advancement Poster Award, MIDAS Annual Symposium, University of Michigan, 2019