About me

I am a Postdoc and NHMRC Investigator Fellow in Powell Lab at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. My current research is focused on understanding the genetic regulation at the single-cell level. I am leading the TenK10K multiome project, which utilises large-scale single-cell multiomics data + whole genome sequencing to identify genetic association with chromatin accessibility and dissect the regulatory mechanisms in human circulating immune cells. The phase 2 study will curate single-cell profiling for > 50 million cells from 10,000 individuals. I am also working on identifying the genetic control of gene expression variability at the single-cell level. To achieve this goal, I am developing novel statistical methods for single-cell variance eQTL mapping and applying them to the OneK1K cohort, the pilot dataset of TenK10K which contains gene expression profiles of 1.2 million peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from ~1,000 individuals. This work would help to understand how genetic variants contribute to gene expression variability within individuals at the single-cell level.

I obtained my PhD in 2021 at The University of Queensland working with Prof. Jian Yang in the field of statistical genetics. During my PhD, I utilised statistical and computational methods to dissect the genetic architecture of human complex diseases, perform meta-analyses, and integrate multi-omics data to identify causal genes and genetic regulatory mechanisms. I conducted the largest genetic study of type 2 diabetes and highlighted three T2D-associated genes with plausible regulatory mechanisms where a genetic variant exerts an effect on T2D through epigenetic regulation of gene expression. I also co-developed a software tool (GSMR2 for evaluating the causal relationship between modifiable risk factors and complex diseases. I was awarded the DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics (Genetics Society of America) in recognition of my PhD work.