Team

Born and raised in Taiwan, Kuan-lin “Kuan” Huang is now an Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences & AI in Human Health, and the PI of the Precision Omics Lab. After being the only graduate to earn two Honors (Molecular Biology & Studio Art) at Wesleyan University, he completed his Ph.D. in Statistical Genomics and Postdoc in Multi-omic Software Development at Washington University in St. Louis. He has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications including lead authorship in the top scientific journals, and is the author of the best-seller “Solve It Yourself.” Kuan was a co-founder/CEO of the startup DeepGene in grad school and currently serves as the co-founder and Chief Unboxer of OpenBoxScience.Org. A good day of his life typically involves great people, hikes, books, dark chocolate, bubble tea, surfing, tennis; and a 20-minute nap.

CV      Web: KuanlinHuang.com     Email: kuan-lin.huang [at] mssm.edu    

Born and grew up in China, once a serious illness motivated me to enter Harbin Medical University, where I earned my B.S. of bioinformatics and Ph.D. of biological engineering. During Ph.D. stage, I used bioinformatics method to explore the molecular mechanisms controlling regulation of gene expression in human cancers, mainly including transcription factors, epigenetics, cancer genetics, biology network and computational system biology. Now I pursue the exploration of computational omics of cancer at Mount Sinai, wishing to promote the treatment of cancer. In my spare time, I like running and playing table tennis.

Megan graduated from Binghamton University with both a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology and a B.S. in Nursing. Subsequently, she earned her M.S. in Bioinformatics from Northeastern University. Currently, Megan is a 4th year PhD Student in Dr. Huang’s lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. During her free time, Megan enjoys running, soccer, and traveling with friends.

Zeynep has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mathematics from Bogazici and Koc Universities in Turkiye. She received her PhD in Applied Math from NJIT & Rutgers joint program, with applications on Neuroscience. Upon graduation, she was hired by Queensborough Community College of CUNY, where she currently works as a tenured Associate Professor. While doing pedagogical research, she got introduced to data science and machine learning and was impressed with their power. As a cancer survivor, the idea of using these tools to contribute to cancer research got her excited. She had the opportunity to join Huang Lab during her fellowship leave. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, sewing, cooking and singing.

Rita earned both a B.S. and M.S. in Forestry and Resource Conservation from National Taiwan University, specializing in wood chemistry. She then joined the Chen Lab at Academia Sinica, utilizing bioinformatics techniques for epigenetic research, and contributed to computational pipeline development for DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility analysis. Later, as a bioinformatics research analyst in the Ding Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, she delved into multi-omic cancer genomics, with a primary focus on kidney and endometrial cancer. Currently, Rita is an active member of the Huang Lab at Mount Sinai, where she investigates genetics rare variants through biobank research. Her future aspirations include applying advanced machine learning methods to contribute to personalized medicine and treatment strategies. Beyond her scientific pursuits, Rita finds joy in hiking, exploring new destinations, watching suspenseful episodes, and engaging in board games, infusing adventure and creativity into her life’s journey.

Jordan was born and raised in Boca Raton FL. He attended the University of Florida where he earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and worked for many years as a medical scribe. His experiences in engineering and clinical medicine have led him to Mount Sinai where he is currently seeking a Masters degree in Biomedical Data Science. In his spare time, Jordan can either be found in the gym, the kitchen, or enjoying a good book.

I was born in India but grew up in a small town in Northern Canada. I finished my undergraduate degree at UC San Diego in 2021, where I majored in Human Biology and minored in Computer Science. I worked at the Bondi Granholm Lab at UC San Diego where my research focused on collecting pupillometry data that we hoped could serve as a biomarker for early-onset Alzheimers. The mix of both Biology and Computer Science in my undergraduate degree brought me to Mount Sinai where I finished my Master’s in Biomedical Data Science in the Huang lab, and now I am an MD student at UCF. 

I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2019 where I majored in Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry. At WashU, I developed a novel super-resolution imaging method to study amyloid structures at nanometer resolution for extended time periods. Afterwards, I worked at the National Institute on Aging where I studied hematopoietic stem cells and aging. I am currently a first-year MD-PhD student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and am interested in aging research and geriatrics. 

Varun is a first year medical student at Mount Sinai. He received his B.S.H in Computational Biology from Stanford University in 2021. At Stanford, he worked in the labs of Dr. Albert Wu and Hiro Nakauchi on the regeneration of eye tissue through stem-cell based strategies. Previous projects involved CRISPR-editing, organoid development, and single-cell bioinformatics. Varun enjoys reading Japanese literature, performing stand up comedy, and playing tennis.