Team

Zhongren earned his B.S. in Bioinformatics from Tongji University in 2020 and joined Professor Zhang’s lab as a doctoral student the same year. His research focuses on developing computational methods to detect transposition events from long-read sequencing data.

Bo received his B.S. in Bioinformatics from Tongji University in 2020 and is now a Ph.D. candidate in Biology there, expected to graduate in 2026. He profiles transposon insertions in both human and fly, and studies the conservation of piRNA clusters over mammalian evolution. Ultimately, he aims to understand how piRNA clusters silence transposon insertions and regulate gene expression.

Hanxi earned her B.S. in Biology from Tongji University in 2021 and joined Professor Zhang’s lab to pursue her Ph.D. Her research focuses on the mechanisms by which transposable elements (TEs) contribute to the regulation of gene expression.

Ruofan received her B.E. in Biological Engineering from Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 2021 and began her Ph.D. with Professor Zhang at Tongji University the same year. She studies the biogenesis, processing and gene regulation of small noncoding RNAs, with a particular interest in how noncoding sequences contribute to human health and disease.

I studied bioinformatics as an undergraduate at Tongji University, where I carried out a preliminary study of circular RNAs. I am now a graduate student in Professor Xiao-Ou Zhang’s lab, working with single-cell sequencing data. I am deeply interested in biology and machine learning, and I am always happy to discuss ideas.

Mengyao received her B.S. in Applied Statistics from Northeastern University in 2023 and joined Professor Zhang’s lab for her Ph.D. She is drawn to research that brings mathematics and biology together, and hopes to make a meaningful contribution in that space.

Jing graduated from Huazhong Agricultural University in 2023 with a B.S. in Bioinformatics and joined Professor Zhang’s lab to pursue a Ph.D. degree. She is drawn to unexplored questions in biology and to developing innovative approaches to difficult problems, and she continues to broaden her research skills in pursuit of her scientific goals.

I graduated from Tongji University in 2024 with a B.S. in Bioinformatics and then joined Professor Xiao-Ou Zhang’s team. My work focuses on quantifying transposons at the single-cell level and on developing algorithms for that purpose. I am always glad to exchange ideas.

Siyu received her B.S. in Bioinformatics from Soochow University in 2024 and is pursuing her Master’s degree in Biology with Professor Xiao-Ou Zhang at Tongji University. She uses scRNA-seq data to identify transcription start sites (TSSs) and to explore their role in cellular phenotypes and regulatory programs. She hopes to deepen our understanding of transcriptional regulation and to open new approaches to related diseases.

Junru earned her B.S. in Bioinformatics from Tongji University in 2025 and joined the lab to pursue her Ph.D. Her research centers on circular RNAs and single-cell sequencing, and she aims to address practical biological questions through algorithm development and data analysis.

Yue received his B.S. in Bioinformatics from Harbin Medical University in 2025 and is now pursuing a Master’s degree in Biology with Professor Xiao-Ou Zhang at Tongji University. His current work focuses on transcription start sites (TSSs) and their regulatory impact.