MEET OUR TEAM

If you’re interested in joining our team:

Meet our

Principal Investigator

Xia Yang, Ph.D.

Xia Yang, Ph.D.

Professor, Dept. Integrative Biology & Physiology

Expertise: Systems Biology, Bioinformatics, Molecular Genetics

Meet our

Staff Research Associates

In Sook Ahn, Ph.D. Staff Research Associate

In Sook Ahn, Ph.D. Staff Research Associate

(2016-Present)
Expertise: Food Science and Nutrition, Molecular Biology, Microbiome, Metabolomics
Guanglin Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Project Scientist

Guanglin Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Project Scientist

(2016-Present)
Expertise: Environmental Health, Molecular Biology, Omics analysis
Graciel Diamante, Ph.D. Assistant project scientist

Graciel Diamante, Ph.D. Assistant project scientist

(2017-present)
Expertise: Molecular Toxicology, Non-coding RNAs, Omics analysis

MolTox T32 Training Grant Postdoc Fellow
(2017-18)

American Diabetes Association Postdoc Fellowship
(2019-21)

Montgomery Blencowe, MS, Ph.D. Assistant Project Scientist

Montgomery Blencowe, MS, Ph.D. Assistant Project Scientist

(2017-Present)
Expertise: Systems Biology, Integrative Genomics

IBP MS Academic Excellence Award (2018-2019)
American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship
(2021-2023)
IBP Edith Hyde Fellowship
(2021-2022)

Susanna Wang, Ph.D. Scientific Writer

Susanna Wang, Ph.D. Scientific Writer

(2020-Present)
Expertise: Human and Mouse Genetics

Meet our

Postdoctoral Scholars

Daniel Ha, Ph.D. <br />

Daniel Ha, Ph.D.

(2020-present)
Expertise: Bioinformatics, Microbiology

QCBio Collaboratory Fellowship
(2020-22)

Meet our

Graduate Trainees

Zacary Zamora, MS

Zacary Zamora, MS

(2019-Present)
Molecular Toxicology PhD program

T32 Fellowship (2023)
Cota-Robles Fellowship (2021)

Jenny Cheng, MS

Jenny Cheng, MS

(2020-Present)
MCIP Ph.D program
Ingrid Cely, MS

Ingrid Cely, MS

(2015-Present)
Molecular Toxicology PhD program
Thomas Kowal-Safron

Thomas Kowal-Safron

(2021-Present)
Molecular Toxicology PhD program

Mol Tox T32 Predoctoral Fellowship (2021, 2022)

Zoe Zhao

Zoe Zhao

(2020-present)
MCIP PhD Program
Michael Cheng

Michael Cheng

(2022-present)
Bioinformatics PhD program
Cameron Gill

Cameron Gill

(2022-present)
IBP MS program
Juliana Shin

Juliana Shin

(2023-present)
Genetics & Genomics PhD program

GATP Fellowship (2024)

Jade Fachin

Jade Fachin

(2023-present)
MCIP PhD program
Darren Wijaya

Darren Wijaya

(2023-present)
IBP MS program
Hailey Qasawadish

Hailey Qasawadish

(2023-present)
IBP MS program
Wini Suryavanshi

Wini Suryavanshi

(2023-present)
IBP MS program

Meet our

Undergraduates

Ning Wang

Ning Wang

(2020-Present)
Computer Science & Bioinformatics minor
Emily Quinto

Emily Quinto

(2021-Present)
Biology
Young Kim

Young Kim

(2021-Present)
Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology
Karen Garcia

Karen Garcia

(2021-Present)
Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology
Caden Chow

Caden Chow

(2022-Present)
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Julie Tran

Julie Tran

(2022-Present)
Computational and Systems Biology
 Ruoshui (Rainy) Liu

Ruoshui (Rainy) Liu

(2022-Present)
Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Tyler Olson

Tyler Olson

(2022-Present)
Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics
Kayla Arellano

Kayla Arellano

(2022-Present)
Neuroscience
Emily Nguyen

Emily Nguyen

(2023-Present)
Neuroscience
Charlotte Weymer

Charlotte Weymer

(2023-Present)
Physiological Science
Magge Wang

Magge Wang

(2024-Present)
Computational and Systems Biology
Melody Mao

Melody Mao

(2024-Present)
Shunsuke Kikuchi

Shunsuke Kikuchi

(2024-Present)

LAB ALUMNI


ENGINEER

Thien Nghiem (2020), now at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biochemistry

STAFF RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Caden McQuillen, BS, (2020-2023), now Masters in Bioinformatics at Cornell

Sana Majid, MD, CCRP (2016-2018), now at Boston University for interdisciplinary Postdoc training

Peter Cohn (2019-2020)

David Samvelian (2021-2023), now at University of Florida medical school

VISITING SCHOLAR

Yong Zhang, M.D. (2017), Dept. of Cardiology, Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong, China

POSTDOCS

Montgomery Blencowe, Ph.D., Postdoc (2022-2023), now Assistant Project Scientist, UCLA

Graciel Diamante, Ph.D. Postdoc (2017-2021), now Assistant Project Scientist, UCLA

Wenting Liu, Ph.D., Postdoc (2018-2019), now Lecturer, Lincoln University, New Zealand

Zeyneb Kurt, Ph.D., Postdoc (2015-2018), now Assistant Professor at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Yuqi Zhao, Ph.D., Postdoc (2013-2018), now Research Assistant Professor, City of Hope

Anindya Bhattacharya, Postdoc (2014-2015), Ramalingaswami Re-Entry Fellow at Indian Statistical Institute

Qingying Meng, Ph.D., Postdoc (2012-2015), now Bioinformatics Scientist at Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Tianxiao Huan, Ph.D., Postdoc (2010-2015), now Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Katie Chan, Visting Postdoc, Brown University (2013-2014), now Assistant Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong

Ville-Petteri Maekinen, Dsc., Postdoc (2012-2013), now Associate Professor, University of Adelaide, Australia; EMBL Bioinformatics Group Leader

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Ph.D trainees

Gaoyan Li, Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology Ph.D. program (2018-2023), now consultant at Mckinsey

Jessica Ding , Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology Ph.D. program (2020-2023), now Bioinformatician at Kite Pharma

Russell Littman, Ph.D., Bioinformatics PhD (2019-2022), now Postdoc at Genetech

Montgomery Blencowe, Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology Ph.D. program (2019-2022), now Postdoc at UCLA

Yen-Wei Chen, Ph.D., Molecular Toxicology (jointly with Dr. Patrick Allard (2017-2022), now Computational Toxicologist at BMS

Yanning Zuo, Ph.D., Neuroscience PhD program (jointly with Dr. Weizhe Hong) (2019-2022), now Postdoc at UCSD

Jason Hong, Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology Ph.D. program (2017-2021), now Clinical Assistant Professor at UCLA

Douglas Arneson, Ph.D., Bioinformatics PhD (2015-2019), now Senior Bioinformatician at BMS

Le Shu, Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology (MCIP) (2013-2018), now Manager of Marketing Analytics & Insights at Illumina.

MS trainees

Lorin Kirmizi, M.S. Integrative Biology and Physiology (2021-2023)

Jenny Cheng, M.S. Integrative Biology and Physiology (2020-2021), now in UCLA MCIP Ph.D program

Zacary Zamora, M.S. Integrative Biology and Physiology (2020-2021), now in UCLA Molecular Toxicology Ph.D program

Jessica Ding , M.S. Integrative Biology and Physiology (2018-2020), now in UCLA MCIP Ph.D program

Montgomery Blencowe, M.S. Integrative Biology and Physiology (2017-2019), now Postdoc at UCLA

Anthony Crymes, M.S. Environmental Health Science MS program (2017-2018), now in medical school

Katherine Wei, M.S. Integrative Biology and Physiology (2014-2016), now in California Northstate School of Medicine

Rotation students

Morgan Johnson, Ph.D rotation, MCIP (Winter 2024)

Kevin Abuhanna, Ph.D rotation, Genetics & Genomics (Fall 2023)

Juliana Shin, Ph.D rotation, Genetics & Genomics (Fall 2022)

Mingjia Cheng, Ph.D rotation, Dentistry (Spring 2022)

Jia Tang, Ph.D rotation, MCIP (Spring 2022)

Eranthi Jayawardena, Ph.D rotation, MCIP (Summer 2022)

Nguyen Phi, Ph.D rotation, MCIP (Winter 2022)

Junjie (Roy) Chen, Ph.D rotation, MCIP (Winter 2021)

Ricardo Frausto, Ph.D rotation, MCIP (Fall 2020)

Marisol Arellano, Ph.D rotation, Molecular Toxicology (Spring 2020)

Frank Wang, Ph.D rotation, MCIP (Winter 2020)

Angeliki Ioannidis, M.S. (2018) Ph.D. Fall rotation, Molecular Toxicology Ph.D. program.

Feng Zhang (2018) Visiting Graduate Student Ph.D. candidate, Geriatrics, Fudan University

Abigail Bline, Ph.D. rotation, Molecular Toxicology PhD program (2017, Fall)

Daniel Johnson, Ph.D. rotation, Bioinformatics PhD program (2017, Spring)

Tracy Chan, Ph.D. Rotation Student, Bioinformatics (2016)

Martha Zamora, Ph. D. Rotation Student, MCIP (2015)

Albert Sek, Ph.D. Rotation Student, MCIP (2015)

Arthur Ko, Ph.D. Rotation Student, ACCESS (2012)

May Behetraratana, Ph.D. Rotation Student, Molecular Toxicology (2012)

VOLUNTEER

Dr. Andrea Ihegwood, MD, MPH (2017), now Clinical Pharmacology Fellow in Vanderbilt School of Medicine

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Kavya Immadisetty, Physiology (2021-2023)

Darren Wijaya, Biochemistry (2021-2023)

Ashwathi Nair, Psychobiology (2021-2023)

Nuoya Jiang, Computational & Systems Biology (2021-2023), now Masters at Harvard

Neil Hsu, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (2019 -2023)

Brian Chau, Data Theory (2022)

Caroline Huynh, Computational & Systems Biology (2019-2022)

Justin Yoon, Biology (2019-2022)

Caden McQuillen, Mathematics of Computation (2020-2022), now Masters in Bioinformatics at Cornell

Andy Shen, Computer science (2021-2022)

Ava Ektefaie, Computational & Systems Biology (2021-2022)

Zoeb Jamal, Computational & Systems Biology (2020-2021)

I-Hsin Tseng, Biochemistry (2020-2021)

Justin Yee, Mathematics of Computation (2020-2021)

Wendy Su, Computational and Systems Biology (2020-2021)

Jack Bonnett, Computational and Systems Biology (2019-2021)

Sergey Komzyuk, B.S Physiological Science (2020-2021), now in UC San Diego Medical School

Hengjian (Jane) Li, B.S Computational & Systems Biology (2019-2021), now MS program at Yale

Felix Su, Mathematics of Computation (2020)

Jessica Yang, B.S Environmental Health (2019-2020)

Nima Zaghari, B.S Computational & Systems Biology (2018-2020), now MS program at UCLA

Jeanette Lin, B.S Computational & Systems Biology (2018-2019)

Megan Li, B.S Computational & Systems Biology (2018-2019)

Jennifer Garcia, B.S. Environmental & Occupational Health, CSUN (2018-2019)

Benjamin Shou, B.S. Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology (2019), now in John Hopkins Medical School

Paul Patel, B.S. Psychobiology (2017-2019), now in Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

Zara Saleem, B.S. Biology (2017-2019), now in Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

Varun Mandi (B.I.G. Summer Undergraduate Research 2018 ), University of Pittsburg

Christine Sun, B.S. Biology (2014-2018)

Jonnby LaGuardia, B.S. Biology (2015-2018)

Brandon Tsai, B.S.  Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology (2014-2017), now Research Scientist at UCLA

Rio Barrere-Cain, Human Biology and Society (2014-2017), now Research Assistant at UCLA

Ashok Ajunakani (B.I.G. Summer Undergraduate Research 2016 ), University of Illinois

Ugoma Onubogu (B.I.G. Summer Undergraduate Research 2016), Florida A&M University

Xingyi Shi, B.S. Statistics & Bioinformatics (2013-2016), now Bioinformatics Ph.D. student in Boston University

Ivy Yang, B.S. PhySci (2013-2015), now in dental school

Esmeralda Ruiz, PhySci (2013-2015)

Helen Luk, Biology (2012-2014), now in University of San Diego Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science

Candace Levian, PhySci (2012-2014), now in VCU School of Medicine

Drew Mikhail, PhySci (2012-2013), now in USC Keck School of Medicine

Naomi So, PhySci (2012)

Naira Goukasian, PhySci (2012)