Team

Dr. Kuan-lin Huang is an Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences & AI in Human Health at Mount Sinai, where he leads the Precision Omics Lab. Originally from Taiwan, he is the only graduate of Wesleyan University to earn dual Honors — in Molecular Biology and Studio Art — and went on to complete his Ph.D. in Statistical Genomics at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Huang has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications with more than 20,000 citations, and is the author of the best-selling book “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. Most recently, he led the team that won the $1 Million AlzInsights AI Prize for Alzheimer’s research and is a running finalist for two national NIH data science awards. When he’s not advancing precision medicine, you can probably find him on a hiking trail, on a tennis court, or hunting down the perfect bubble tea.

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.

Vivek is a PhD student in the Precision -Omics Lab motivated by global health, machine learning, and medical genomics. Originally from Livingston, NJ, he is a graduate of Northeastern University (BS, Data Science & Biology) and was a Mitchell Scholar at University College Dublin (MSc, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Medical Research). Vivek is an avid runner and a long time fan of the New York Knicks; he often unwinds on the weekends by watching Ted Lasso.

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.

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.