Our lab is dedicated to training students and postdocs to become passionate and influential scientists in both industry and academia. We provide fantastic opportunities for those with either computational and wet lab experience – and we’re always looking for curious PhD students and postdocs to join us on this journey. Come discover basic and translational science with us!

Lab membersDate joinedBiography

Yang I Li, DPhil (twitter,CV)		Oct 2017Yang is an Associate Professor in the Section of Genetic Medicine. Yang grew up in China, Belgium, and Canada. He obtained a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University (2009), a M.Phil. in Biological Sciences from the University of Liverpool (2010), and a D.Phil. in evolutionary genomics from the University of Oxford (2014). He worked with Jonathan Pritchard at Stanford before moving to UChicago in 2017. Outside lab he likes to hike, rock climb, cook, and travel.

Ben Fair, PhD		September 2018Ben is a staff scientist in the lab. He was previously a postdoc jointly advised by Yoav Gilad. Ben grew up in Michigan, where he earned a BA in Biology at Grand Valley State University. He then earned a PhD in Molecular Biology at Cornell University in the laboratory of Jeffrey Pleiss. Outside of science he enjoys traveling and playing the drums.

Carlos Buen Abad, PhD		August 2021Carlos is a postdoc jointly advised by Matthew Stephens. He grew up in Colima, Mexico, and earned a BSc in Biology at UNAM, in Mexico City. He then earned a PhD in Computational Biology at UC Berkeley in Liana Lareau’s and Nir Yosef’s labs. Outside of the lab, Carlos practices Judo, reads about history, and enjoys spending time with his family.

Chao Dai, B.S. (twitter)		August 2021Chao is a PhD student in the Committee on Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology at UChicago. He earned an M.S. in Biology from New York University, an M.B.A from Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.E. in Automation from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. In addition to science, Chao enjoys traveling, hiking, cooking, and is a self-claimed foodie.

Dylan Stermer, B.Sc.		August 2023Dylan is a PhD student in the Committee on Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology at UChicago. He grew up in Montreal and obtained a B.Sc in Pharmacology and Therapeutics from McGill University. In addition to his scientific interests Dylan is an international competitive sailor, and enjoys reading, camping and playing bass & guitar.

Quinn Hauck, B.Sc.		July 2024Quinn is a PhD student in Human Genetics. He grew up in Seattle and graduated with a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Outside of lab, he plays ultimate frisbee and enjoys watching baseball, hiking and traveling.

Hao Yu, B.S.		August 2023Hao Yu is a first year PhD student jointly mentored by Xuanyao Liu. Hao earned a M.S. in computer science at UChicago and a B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Hong Kong. Hao is interested in applying computational technologies to solve biological problems. Outside the lab, he enjoys riding, paddling and jogging.

Sara Fritz, B.S.		November 2024Sara is a research lab technician. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she earned a BS in Genetics and Genomics. She is excited to expand her research experiences and explore genetics through hands-on work. Outside of the lab, she loves hiking, cooking, crochet and photography.

Alumni, Rotation students, and short visitorsDatesRole/Current location

Fabio Morgante, PhD (twitter)		2018/8-2020/7Fabio was a postdoc jointly advised by Matthew Stephens. He is now a faculty at Clemson University.

Phoenix Mu, B.S. (webpage)		April 2019-January 2024Phoenix (Zepeng) was a PhD student in the Committee on Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology at UChicago. Phoenix used genomics techniques to understand the genetic basis of autoimmune diseases. He is now a Postdoctoral fellow in Soumya Raychaudhuri’s lab at Harvard.

Ankeeta Shah, B.A. (twitter, google scholar)		May 2018-2023Ankeeta was a PhD Student in the Committee on Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology at UChicago, and worked on applying computational methods to better characterize the impact of genetic variants on RNA processing. She is now working in equity research at Piper Sandler.

Gabriela Mossian, B.A. 		October 2021-May 2023Gabi was a lab technician in the lab. She attended Indiana University where she earned a BA in Biology. She is eager to keep learning about genetics and continue on to a PhD. Outside of the lab, she loves to bake, read, and explore new places. She is now doing consulting work.

Eric Chen, B.S.		September 2021-Feb 2023Eric was a research assistant during his gap year. Eric worked on deploying KAS-seq on the LCLs. He is now a PhD student at Harvard in the Molecules, Cells, and Organisms program.

Yi Zeng, PhD		January 2021-June 2022Yi was a postdoc jointly advised by Jon Staley. Yi earned a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology at University of Chicago in the laboratory of Jon Staley. Outside of lab, he is a huge basketball fan and likes traveling. He is now a postdoc with Aaron Gilter at Stanford.

Austin Reilley		June 2020-August 2021Austin was a lab technician. They worked with Ben Fair on projects seeking to understand the interplay of co-transcriptional spicing and epigenetic factors in gene regulation. Austin is now working at the UChicago Lab School as an after school tutor.

Alex Williams		November 2023-May 2024Alex is a third year genetics and computer science double major in the College. He is excited to investigate nonsense-mediated decay as an effector of alternative splicing in a variety of previously less-studied organisms. In his free time, Alex enjoys playing the guitar and going on runs. He is now continuing his studies at UChicago.

Henry Bloom		October 2022-May 2024Henry is an undergrad at UChicago studying computer science and molecular engineering, with a focus in bioengineering. In the lab, he built a bioinformatics pipeline to call somatic variants and predict their effect on RNA splicing. He is now finishing his senior year at UChicago and hopes to work in software engineering.

Tony Zeng, B.S.		2018/1-2021/09Tony was an undergrad at UChicago majoring in Applied Mathematics. He is generally interested in evolutionary and systems biology. He is now a PhD student at Stanford in the Genetics program.

Shane Warland		2018/6-2021/07Shane was an undergrad at UChicago majoring in Biology with a focus on genetics. He is currently studying alternative splicing and is interested in genetics and evolutionary biology. Outside of school he likes to swim, hike, and travel. He is now a PhD student at Cornell in the Molecular Biology and Genetics program.

Stephanie Lozano, B.S.		2018/2-2020/8Stephanie was a lab technician in the Li lab. She performed high-throughput, genomics assays in LCLs and other cell lines. She is now a grad student at UC Davis in the Neuroscience program.

Ruohan Hao, B.Sc.		2018/09-2019/07Ruohan was a visiting PhD student from Xi’an Jiaotong University. She is now back to Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Liz Gibbons2023/1-2023/4Rotation student from UChicago (Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology). She is now a PhD student in the Blehkman lab.
Geena Woo2022/8-2022/9Rotation student from UChicago (Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology). She is now a PhD student in the Gilad lab.
Jerry Lee2021/1-2021/4Rotation student from UChicago (Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology). He is now PhD student in Heng-Chi Lee’s lab.
Xinyi Li2020/05-2020/07Rotation student from UChicago (GGSB). She is now a PhD student in the Novembre lab.
Erik McIntire2020/01/-
2020/03		Rotation student from UChicago (Human Genetics). He is now a PhD student in the Gilad lab.
Chen Cheng2018/7-2018/9Visiting student from Zhejiang University; Returned to Zhejiang University.
Yichen Hou2018/6-2018/7Rotation student from UChicago (Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology). She is now a PhD student in the Staley lab.
Jin Li2018/6-2018/7Rotation student from UChicago (Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition). She is now a PhD student in the Fan lab.