Meet the team!

Gamze Gürsoy
Principal Investigator
gamze.gursoy at columbia.edu Website Room Number: NYGC 617 / NYP PH20-401AGamze is an assistant professor at the Department of Biomedical Informatics (and affiliated with Computer Science) at Columbia University. She was previously a K99/R00 postdoctoral fellow at Computational Biology and Bioinformatics program of Yale University with Mark Gerstein. She obtained her Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from University of Illinois at Chicago under the supervision of Jie Liang and her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Conor Walker
Postdoctoral Research Associate
cwalker at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod LConor is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the lab. He previously completed a PhD in human genomics under the supervision of Nick Goldman at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the University of Cambridge. Broadly he is interested in probabilistic and machine learning models for interpreting human genetic variaton. In the G2 lab, he will explore privacy-preserving methods for analysing single-cell RNA sequencing data.

Seungwan Hong
Postdoctoral Research Associate
shong at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod LSeungwan is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the lab. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Mathematical Science, Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea, advised by Prof. Jung Hee Cheon. His main research topics are practical aspects of cryptosystems, including homomorphic encryption and privacy-preserving machine learning applications.

Gediminas Drabavicius
Postdoctoral Research Associate
gdrabavicius at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod L / 5th FloorGediminas “Gedas” is a joint postdoctoral research associate between Gürsoy and Sanjana labs at New York Genome Center. Earlier, he completed a dual PhD degree in Biochemistry (under Prof. Virginijus Siksnys) and Biomedical Sciences (under Prof. Dirk Daelemans) between Vilnius University in Lithuania and KU Leuven in Belgium. Currently, he is interested in using genome and transcriptome engineering tools to understand the role and the impact of genome organization in cellular senescence. In his spare time, Gedas enjoys reading, specialty coffee, obscure conversations, and Oxford commas.

Ahmed Elhussein
PhD Student
ae2722 at cumc.columbia.edu Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod L / NYP PH20-200Ahmed is a PhD student in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University. He completed his BA at Cambridge University, MBBS (MD equivalent) at Oxford University and MPH at Johns Hopkins University. He is interested in developing privacy-preserving computational methods in clinical informatics.

Annie Choi
PhD Student
yc3972 at cumc.columbia.edu Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod L / NYP PH20-200Annie is a PhD student at the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) program of Columbia University. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. She likes to watch movies and go on scenic walks.

Jacob Blindenbach
PhD Student
jb4816 at columbia.edu Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod LJacob is an incoming PhD student at the Computer Science department of Columbia University and currently working as a research associate in the lab. He graduated from UVA with a BS in Math and CS. He loves swimming and analyzing swimming technique with CS. He also enjoys ragtime / stride piano.

Jessica Fung
Associate Scientist I
jfung at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod K / 4th FloorJessica is an Associate Scientist in the lab. She received her BS in Biotechnology and Molecular Biosciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Post graduation, she worked in vaccines’ research and development for a few years. She loves fitness and rock climbing.

Narjis El Amraoui
Visiting Research Scientist – Master's Student
nelamraoui at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod LNarjis is visiting the lab for 6 months for her internship. She is a Master’s Student studying Computer Science and Engineering at Mines ParisTech, in Paris, France. She is currently taking a gap year to discover new professional horizons and meet people from different cultures. She loves volleyball, dancing, singing and video games.

Rockwell Weiner
Master's Student
rweiner at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod KRocky is an MS student studying CS theory at Columbia University. Previously, he worked for several years as a software engineer, and received his BS in EECS from UC Berkeley. He’s an avid rock climber, skier, and board gamer.

Daniel Joo
Undergraduate Student
dsj2122 at columbia.eduDaniel is a senior undergraduate in Columbia College majoring in Computer Science/Math. He is also taking the premed curriculum and intend to go to medical school. In his free time, he enjoys drawing and playing games. He works with Dr. Seungwan Hong on implementation of homomorphic encryption to problems in genomics.

Rashid Al-Abri
Intern
ralabri at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th floor Pod LRashid is a B.S. student in Computer Science at Stanford University. He is interested in repeat DNA and its regulatory role in the genome. In his internship at the lab, he hopes to explore a career in research. He is an avid cook in the kitchen, and writes spoken word poetry in his free time.

Will Lounsbery-Scaife
Intern
wfl2113 at cumc.columbia.edu Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod KWill is starting his master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University in the fall of 2022. He obtained his bachelor’s degree at NYU, majoring in Biology and minoring in Computer Science. After graduating, he took a break from biology to work as a cook on a sailboat for a year.

Shreyoshi Ghosh
Intern
sghosh at nygenome.org Room Number: NYGC 6th Floor Pod KShreyoshi is an MS student studying Bioinformatics at New York University. She is interested in the application of machine learning in the field of genomics. Her hobbies include painting, cooking and spending time with friends.