Yitang was one of the first members in the Ye lab. He joined the lab in fall 2018 as a visiting student and formally became a graduate student in Genetics in fall 2019. He is dedicated to an academic career in human health research. He contributed to almost all computational projects in the Ye lab in the last six years. He has published 16 manuscripts from his graduate work (7 first- or co-first- author), with a few more in the pipeline. Yitang is kind and patient, and he has mentored numerous undergraduates in research. He won numerous awards in grad schools, such as the Lois K. Miller Award, Mary Erlanger Graduate Fellowship, Graduate Education Advancement Board Fellowship, and Mote Graduate Support Fund for Biomedical Genetics Research.

Yitang has accepted a postdoctoral position at MGH and the Broad Institute. We look forward to witnessing his achievements in the future.


Alex has been working in the lab since 2021 as a freshman. She and Aryaman jointly worked on multiple gene-environment interaction projects. The two of them will be co-first authors on two manuscripts that are currently in preparation. She has denied to join the M.S. in Computer Science program at the Georgia Institute of Technology.


Aryaman has been working in the lab since fall 2021. He and Alex jointly worked on multiple gene-environment interaction projects. The two of them will be co-first authors on two manuscripts that are currently in preparation. Aryaman has decided to join the medical school at the University of Virginia.


Hy has been working in the lab since fall 2021. He examined the expression patterns of the FADS genes at the single-cell level across tissues, developmental stages and species. He is a co-author on a submitted manuscript. Hy received the Cynthia Kenyon Award from the Department of Genetics in recognition of his excellence in academics, research and leadership. His name will be engraved on a plaque that hangs in the Genetics office. Hy has accepted the offer to pursue a PhD in biomedical sciences at the University of Michigan.


Aryaman, Kaixiong, and Hy at the Genetics Graduation Ceremony


Elaina performed three semesters of research in the lab. She is a member of the experimental team that studies the regulatory impacts of genetic variants on the FADS genes.



Nitya participated in research projects that leverage shared genetic basis to infer the relationship between circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids and brain disorders. She is a co-author on a manuscript that is currently under review.