Meet The Team
Tiffany Amariuta, PhD
Principal Investigator
Tiffany started her group at UCSD in July of 2022. For more information about her and the research focus of the group, please see the home, about, and publications pages.
Ziqi Xu
PhD student
Ziqi is currently a first-year PhD student in the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (BISB) program. Her research interest lies in developing computational and statistical methods to understand genetic contributions to diseases. Her current project focuses on estimating heritability from single cell gene expression data and investigating co-regulation across genes and cell types using GWAS and single-cell RNA-seq data. Ziqi enjoys spending her spare time in dog parks and zoos.
Krishna Brunton
PhD Student
Krishna is a PhD student in the Bioengineering department. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2021, where he majored in Biochemistry-Molecular Biology. His current research project focuses on developing methods to identify genome-wide contributions to gene expression regulation. Krishna's hobbies include checking out new coffee shops and hiking.
Kai Akamatsu
Undergraduate Researcher
Kai is a second-year undergraduate student studying Bioinformatics. He is currently working on multi-ancestry gene expression prediction models. His goal is to leverage computer science to democratize high-quality medicine and improve patient care outcomes. In his free time, Kai likes to surf with his friends and cook.
Xiaoyu Gui
Undergraduate Researcher
Xiaoyu is a third-year undergraduate majoring in Data Science with two minors in General Biology and Mathematics. Her interest lies in leveraging data science techniques to help minimize the gap in health-related discoveries among populations with different ancestry. In her free time, she enjoys taking photos around the city.
Stephen Golzari
Undergraduate Researcher
Stephen is a third-year undergraduate researcher majoring in Bioengineering/Bioinformatics. He is currently working on incorporating fine-mapping methods to improve multi-ancestry gene expression prediction models. In his free time, Stephen enjoys composing music and playing chess.
Ieva Sereiva
Undergraduate Researcher
Ieva is a third-year undergraduate student studying bioinformatics at UCSD. She is currently working on the development of a pangenome browser, which is aimied at providing a user-friendly interface for visualising and analyzing pangenomic data. In her free time, Ieva likes to read and explore the city with friends.
Nan Huang
Undergraduate Researcher
Nan is a third-year undergraduate student double majoring in Data Science and Math Econ. She is interested in understanding the genetic basis of childhood asthma, aiming to develop clinical risk models that integrate genetic, transcriptomic, and non-genetic risk factors to enhance early asthma detection and personalized treatment strategies. Outside the lab, Nan enjoys exploring new restaurants, cooking recipes, and different types of music.
Alumni
Undergraduate Researchers
Ciby Lin, Chemistry (Winter 2023 - Spring 2023)
Sivani Vedula, Bioinformatics (Winter 2023 - Winter 2024)
Sujana Sreenivasan, Bioinformatics (Winter 2023 - Winter 2024)
Paulina Montserrath, ENLACE (Summer 2023)
Nicole Gonzalez, ENLACE (Summer 2023)
PhD Rotation Students
Benjamin Pham, Data Science (Spring 2023, ongoing collaborations)
Giorgia Nicolaou, Data Science (Spring 2023)
Anna Qi, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (Summer 2023)
Hyrum Eddington, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (Winter 2024)
Nicholas Chan, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (Spring 2024)
Ishaan Gupta, Computer Science and Engineering (Spring 2024)
Staff Researchers
Alona Khorzhakova, Computational Data Science Researcher (Summer 2023 - Winter 2024)