Principal Investigator
Nick Mancuso
Nick is assistant professor for the Center of Genetic Epidemiology and Department of Preventive Medicine at Keck School of Medicine, USC. He also holds a joint affiliation in the Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology. Nick’s research focuses on developing computational approaches to identify genes and underlying mechanisms that contribute to complex disease risk. He is also interested in the influence of selection in shaping the genetic architecture for complex disease across diverse populations. Prior to joining USC, Nick was a postdoc in Dr. Bogdan Pasaniuc’s lab at UCLA. Before that, he received his PhD in Computer Science from Georgia State University studying with Dr. Alex Zelikovsky.
Current Lab Members
Tsz Fung Chan
Tsz Fung is a Ph.D. student in Epidemiology in the Department of Preventive Medicine since 2019. Before joining the group, he received his Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (minor in Computer Science) and M.Phil. in Bioinformatics from the University of Hong Kong, where he
studied genetic variation in Epstein-Barr virus. Working with Drs Nick Mancuso and Charleston Chiang in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology, he is interested in developing methods for analyzing genomic data of admixed populations.
Zeyun Lu
Zeyun Lu is a PhD student in Biostatistics since 2019. He is from Zibo, Shandong, China. His research interests are to develop statistical methods to better understand the associations between genetic variants and complex diseases. Before joining the group, he worked as a statistician at Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) of USC. He received his BS in Mathematics/Economics at UCLA, and his MS in Statistics at UCSD. In his free time, he likes reading, singing, and playing League of Legends.
Zixuan (Eleanor) Zhang
Eleanor is a PhD student in Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine at USC. Before arriving at USC, she received Bachelor’s degree in Genetics & Genomics from UC Davis and Master’s degree in Biostatistics at Columbia University. Her primary research interest is using statistical models to understand genetic regulatory pathways in human diseases and implement with improved computational efficiency.
Dong Yuan
Dong is a PhD student in Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine at USC since 2019. Before joining the lab, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Statistics from Southern Medical University in China, and Master of Science Degree in Biostatistics at Columbia University in the City of New York. His primary interest is using modern machine learning approaches to infer genetic regulatory networks in complex disease.
Alumni
Xinran Wang — MS, Biostatistics, 2023. Current staff scientist in Charleston Chiang’s lab at USC.
Junghyun Jung, PhD — Postdoc, 2023. Currently staff scientist at Cedars Sinai Hospital.
Shyamalika Gopalan, PhD — Postdoc, 2020. Currently a postdoc with Amy Goldberg at Duke University
Jingyang (Peter) Chen — MS, Biostatistics, 2020.