Team

Yixuan He
Principal Investigator

Yixuan started the group in January 2025. Before moving to Houston, Yixuan lived in Boston where she pursued her PhD in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics at Harvard Medical School in Dr. Chirag Patel’s group and received post-doctoral training with Dr. Alicia Martin and co-mentorship from Dr. Alexander Gusev and Dr. Jordan Smoller.

Yixuan is particularly interested in understanding the distinct and shared genetic architecture between chronic diseases for precision medicine. For a more formal account of Yixuan’s academic work, please see her CV. In her free time, Yixuan loves to bake, draw, and play with her dog Mido.

Jiawei Tu
PhD Student
Jiawei is a Ph.D. student in the Epidemiology Department at UTHealth Houston. Her research focuses on understanding how genetic and environmental factors influence individual health outcomes and precision medicine. In her free time, Jiawei enjoys playing badminton and tennis.

Huiying Hu
PhD Student
Huiying Hu is a Ph.D. student in the Biostatistics Department at UTHealth Houston. Her research focuses on developing statistical and computational methods for cancer genetics, with particular interests in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), proteomics, and environmental risk factors, as well as their applications to precision medicine. In her free time, Huiying enjoys playing tennis, skiing, and spending time with her cat.

Siqi Yang
PhD Student
Siqi is a Ph.D. student in the Epidemiology Department at UTHealth Houston. She is passionate about conducting research that applies statistical modeling to predict disease risk and outcomes in areas such chronic and infectious diseases. Siqi enjoys working with clinical, genetic, and real-world data to better understand health outcomes in diverse populations

Maihediya Maihemuti
PhD Student
Maihediya is a Ph.D. student in the Epidemiology Department at UTHealth Houston. She is interested in lung cancer among never smokers and aims to enhance risk prediction through statistical modeling. In her free time, she enjoys cycling and baking.

Yixin Su
Computational Biologist
Yixin received her M.S. in Biostatistics from Boston University. Her research interests focus on applying biostatistical and data science methods to longitudinal, wearable, and real-world health data to better understand disease risk, progression, and prevention. She is particularly interested in brain health, dementia, sleep and circadian rhythms, and the integration of genetic and other large-scale biomedical data. In her free time, Yixin enjoys swimming, knitting, and spending time with her dog, Toffee.

Alethea Nagahara
Undergraduate Student
Alethea is a junior at University of Southern California, majoring in Computer Science. Her research interests lie at the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare, with a particular focus on using computer vision and multi-omic data to improve cancer diagnostics. She is passionate about developing accessible, AI-driven tools to advance precision medicine and address healthcare disparities. In her free time, she loves playing tennis and baking!

Muhammad Rehan
Former Undergraduate Student
Muhammad graduated with a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is now pursuing a Master’s in Bioengineering at Rice University. He joined the HeY Lab as a summer student from the SPH CPRIT program.