Azizi Lab @ Columbia

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  • Home
  • Research
  • Members
  • Publications
  • Join Us
  • Contact














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Members

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Elham Azizi 
Principal Investigator 

Bio: Elham joined Columbia in 2020 as the Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Cancer Data Research in the Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics and an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering. She is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science, Data Science Institute, and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Elham holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, and an MSc in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Boston University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Dana Pe'er Lab at Columbia University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her multidisciplinary research utilizes novel machine learning techniques and single-cell genomic and imaging technologies to study the dynamics and circuitry of interacting cells in the tumor microenvironment. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize for Junior Investigators, NIH NCI Pathway to Independence Award, an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an IBM Best Paper Award at the New England Statistics Symposium.
Curriculum Vitae 
​Teaching: BMEN 4480 Statistical Machine Learning in Genomics (Spring Semester)​
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Lingting Shi (Starting July 2022)
Postdoctoral Research Scientist (co-mentored with José McFaline-Figueroa)


Lingting is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Herbert and Florence Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics. She received a BS in biomedical engineering at Rutgers University, where she worked on developing an in vitro approach to identifying skin sensitizers with machine learning tools in Dr. Martin Yarmush’s Lab. Then for her Ph.D. degree, she joined Dr. Lance Kam’s lab at Columbia BME to study the mechanosensing of regulatory T cell induction for the generation of Tregs to treat autoimmune diseases. Now Lingting is very excited to study cancer with computational approaches and explore the interaction between the immune system and cancer in the Azizi lab! Outside of the lab, Lingting enjoys cycling, camping, traveling, and exploring NYC.
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​Achille Nazaret
PhD student (co-advised with David Blei)

Achille is currently a Columbia PhD student in Computer Science. He previously studied at Ecole Polytechnique in France, where he developed his passion for theoretical science (mathematics, statistics, physics, CS) and machine learning. Achille has oriented his scientific excitement toward biology and genomics when conducting research in the Yosef Computational Biology lab at UC Berkeley in 2019. He is enthused about the potential of data, computer power and rigorous analytical tools to solve global issues and he hopes to make valuable progress in the Azizi Lab!
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​Cameron Park
PhD Student, Kaganov Fellow 

Cameron is a PhD student in the BME department. While an undergraduate at Stanford, she majored in both Physics and Human Biology, and was a member of the varsity women's lacrosse team. After completing her undergraduate degrees in 2018, she stayed at Stanford for her Master's in Bioengineering. Originally from the Boston area, Cameron is happy to be back on the East Coast and is very excited to be able to explore machine learning and cancer biology in the Azizi lab! 
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​Joy (Linyue) Fan
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MS/PhD Student, Van C. Mow Fellow

Joy is a current PhD student in the BME department. She completed undergraduate training at MIT, where she studied Biological Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. Her previous work in the MIT Synthetic Biology Center involved using deep learning approaches to study the behavior of synthetic circuits in human stem cells. She is excited about working at the intersection of computer science, engineering, and experimental biology, and hopes to develop novel machine learning methods for the study of cancer in the Azizi lab. 
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​Siyu He
PhD student (co-advised with Kam Leong)

Siyu is currently a PhD student in the BME department. She majored in physics previously at Xian Jiaotong University in China, and she developed interests in bioengineering and finished her bachelor thesis during RA at Harvard. She is currently applying machine learning and single-cell genomic technologies to tissue engineering, and aims to understand the genetic lesion and developmental dynamics of engineered organs. She is also enthusiastic about studying stem cell and cancer cell interaction, and excited about doing amazing research in the Azizi lab!
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​Yinuo Jin
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MS/PhD Student, Columbia Presidential Fellow 

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Yinuo is currently pursuing his PhD in BME after completing his BS in Computer Science at Columbia. He is interested in applying computational and statistical methods to sequence analysis, especially processing single-cell and long-read sequencing data.

​Ioana Lia (starting Fall 2022)
​MS/PhD Student (co-advised with José McFaline-Figueroa) 
Justin Hong (starting Fall 2022)
PhD Student 
Kevin Hoffer-Hawlik (starting Fall 2022)
​MS/PhD Student  (co-advised with José McFaline-Figueroa), Columbia Presidential Fellow 
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​Shouvik Mani
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MS Student

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Shouvik is pursuing his MS in Computer Science. Previously, he was a Data Scientist at C3 AI, where he built AI applications for various industries. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2018 with a BS in Statistics and Machine Learning. His research focuses on (1) developing novel machine learning methods which incorporate prior knowledge and learn from limited labeled data, and (2) applying these methods to problems in computational biology. He is also passionate about teaching Computer Science. Outside of the lab, he enjoys running, playing soccer, and reading!
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​Tamjeed Azad
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Undergraduate Student

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Tamjeed is an undergraduate student in SEAS majoring in computer science and minoring in economics. He has a strong interest in machine learning and its potential in helping solve difficult problems in biology and beyond. On the side, he’s an avid soccer fan and enjoys going on long distance runs through the city.
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​Joshua Fuller
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Undergraduate Student

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Joshua is an undergraduate student in SEAS majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in Computer Science. He is passionate about the intersection of medicine and machine learning and is excited to contribute his time toward its development. In his spare time, he enjoys going to the gym and exploring New York.
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Ruxandra Tonea

Undergraduate Student

Ruxandra is an undergraduate student studying Biomedical Engineering and Statistics at Columbia University. She aspires to get a PhD in Synthetic Biology and make use of both biology and computational science to solve and understand diseases. In her free time she enjoys listening to music, dancing and taking long walks. 
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James Wang
Undergraduate Student

James is a senior in SEAS studying computer science and applied mathematics. He is passionate about machine learning and vision, and their applications to computational biology and medicine. In his free time, he enjoys venturing the city and trying new eats.
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​Sopho Kevlishvili
Undergraduate Student

Sopho is an undergraduate student studying biomedical engineering and computer science. She is interested in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and their applications to medicine and computational biology. She aspires to work on developing novel machine learning methods to answer research questions regarding diseases and treatment methods. In her free time she enjoys visiting museums and exploring New York.

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Undergraduate Summer Interns:
Isha Arora (IICD program), 
Biomedical Engineering/Computer Science, Cornell University
Pranik Chainani, Statistics and Data Science, Yale University

High School Summer Interns:
​Madeline Rohde
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​Pistachio
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Minute taker / Zoom meeting disruptor
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​Alumni:
Xueer Chen, Postdoctoral Research Scientist (2021-2022); Next position: Senior scientist at Bristol Myers Squibb.
​Alex Toberoff, Undergraduate Student (2020-2021); Next position: Researcher at Jump Trading.
Debra Duval, Research Assistant (2021).
​Max David Gupta, Undergraduate Student (2021).
Princess Della Tsivor, High School Summer Student (2021); Next position: undergrad at Brown U.
Jose Pomarino Nima, Undergraduate Student (2020-2021).
Lauren Friend, MS Student (2020); Next Position: R&D Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center.
​Rachel Africk, High School Summer Student (2020); Next position: undergrad at U Penn SEAS.
Veronica Woldehanna, Undergraduate Student (2019-2020); Next Position: Software Engineer, Microsoft.
We have open positions at all levels! Please see Join Us for more details.
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