People


Principal Investigator


Jason Ernst
Professor
Email: jason.ernst at ucla dot edu
Bio: Jason Ernst is a Professor of Biological Chemistry, Computer Science, and Computational Medicine at UCLA. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Manolis Kellis in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and affiliated with the Broad Institute. In 2008, Jason completed a PhD advised by Ziv Bar-Joseph in the Machine Learning Department and School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Jason also earned BS degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Maryland College Park. He has developed a number of widely used bioinformatics methods and software include ChromHMM for chromatin state modeling and genome annotation and STEM and DREM for the analysis of time series gene expression data. He is a member of the editorial board at Genome Research and co-chairs the steering committee for International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB) Regulatory and Systems (RegSys) Genomics Community of Special Interest Group. He is a recipient of a NSF CAREER Award, NIH-Avenir Award, Sloan Fellowship, and a John H. Walsh Young Investigator Research Prize.

Postdoctoral Researchers


Ha Vu
PhD student in Bioinformatics

PhD Students


Tevfik Dincer
PhD student in Bioinformatics


Runjia (Luke) Li
PhD student in Bioinformatics


Jingyuan Fu
PhD student in Computer Science
(Co-advised by Eleazar Eskin)


Emily Maciejewski
PhD student in Computer Science


Joseph Galasso
PhD student in Computer Science
(Co-advised by Chongyuan Luo)

Undergraduate Students

Aidan Zhang - Computational and Systems Biology
Katy Martinson - Bruins in Genomics Program
Siddharth Naidu - Bruins in Genomics Program

Previous Group Members

PhD Students

Petko Fiziev, PhD in Bioinformatics 2018 - now at Illumina Artificial Intelligence Lab
Artur Jaroszewicz, PhD in Bioinformatics 2019 - now at ROME Therapeutics
Adriana Arneson, PhD in Bioinformatics 2020 - now at Protillion Biosciences
Shan Sabri, PhD in Bioinformatics 2020 (co-advised with Kathrin Plath) - now at Sana Biotechnology
Jennifer Zou, PhD in Computer Science 2021 (co-advised with Eleazar Eskin) - now at Illumina
Soo Bin Kwon, PhD in Bioinformatics 2021 - now at Illumina

Staff

Olivera Grujic - 2015-2018

Visiting Postdoctoral Fellows

Pasquale Laise - Visited from European Institute of Oncology, 2016

PhD Rotation students

Jeremy Wang - Bioinformatics, Fall 2022
Michael Cheng - Bioinformatics, Fall 2021
Albert Xue - Bioinformatics, Spring 2021
Matthew Heffel - Bioinformatics, Fall 2020
Jonathan Perrie - Bioinformatics, Fall 2020
Zhicheng Pan - Bioinformatics, Winter 2016
Christopher Robles - Genetics and Genomics, Winter 2016
Xiaorui Fan - Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Winter 2016
Kai Fu - Bioinformatics, Spring 2014
Ashley Cass - Bioinformatics, Winter 2013

Masters students

Aaron Zhou - Computer Science, 2018-2020
Angela Chen - Computer Science, 2017-2018
Yuju Lee - Computer Science, 2013-2014
Natalie Davidson - Computer Science, 2012-2013

Undergraduate students

Elijah Jones - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2022
Saiyang Liu - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2022
Aahna Rathod - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2022
Christopher He - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2021
Zane Koch - Computational and Systems Biology and Bruins in Genomics Program, 2021
Huiling Huang - Computational and Systems Biology, 2020
Megan Arden - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2020
Joseph Galasso - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2020
Anshul Kale - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2020
Mudi Yang - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2020
Grace Casarez - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2019
Rebecca Castillo - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2019
Trevor Ridgley - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2019
Jeremy Wang - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2019 and 2021
Luke Li - Computer Science, 2018-2019
Jennifer Chien - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2018
Brooke Felsheim - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2018
Aaron Zhou - Computer Science and Mathematics, 2017-2018
Deven Agrawal - Computer Science and Cognitive Science, 2017
Timothy Fisher - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2017
Heather Han - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2017
Scott De Taboada - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2016
Ashish Gauli - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2016
Earle Aguilar - Computer Science and Bruins in Genomics Program, 2015
Vileena Koneru - Computational and Systems Biology, 2015
Hana Wasserman - Bruins in Genomics Program, 2015
Jack Lu - UCLA CSST Program, 2014
Sam Chuang - Computer Science, 2012-2014

Group Photos


Fall 2022 - Betty Dearing Trail/TreePeople Hike


Fall 2021 - Inspiration Point Hike


Summer 2021 - Oak Spring Trail Hike


Fall 2020 - Virtual Royce Hall


Fall 2019 - Inspiration Point Hike


Fall 2018 - Griffith Park Hike


Fall 2017 - Rustic Canyon Hike


Fall 2016 - Cathedral Rock Hike


Winter 2016 - Topanga Hike