I grew up in the historic capital of Xi'an, China and immigrated to Canada at a young age. I've always had a passion for science and was introduced to stem cell biology and regenerative medicine when I joined the lab of Dr. Michael Rudnicki at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. I was struck by the ability of a small pool of muscle stem cells that can rebuild and restore the function of muscle and I became fascinated with how the body is able to repair and heal. By better understanding the repair process, we can harness our body's ability to heal in order to combat chronic disease and even counteract aging. 

​

I received my PhD from the University of Ottawa, garnering a Governor General’s Gold Medal for my thesis work on molecular mechanisms that regulate the self-renewal decision of muscle stem cells. This work led to novel therapeutic targets and is paving the way for treatments for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy that promote regeneration rather than just slowing down the disease.

 

After graduating, I moved to the Bay Area and underwent postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Helen Blau at Stanford University School of Medicine. I embraced the big data revolution and plunged into the world of machine learning and neural networks. I developed bioinformatics approaches to study epigenetic regulation of cell fate using ATAC-seq and computational pipelines to process highly multiplexed tissue imaging.

 

These technological advancements will accelerate discovery in my lab. Instead of studying one cell type or one gene at a time, we can now see the entire network of genetic regulation and ecosystem of cells that work together to rebuild a tissue. These insights will revolutionize our abilities to unravel complex diseases that involve multiple cell types or driven by autoimmune disorders.