Jia-Yuan Zhang

I joined the DIL Data Analysis Team in Sept 2019 as a DPhil student. Currently I am working on investigating the effect of de novo mutations to T1D. De novo mutations have been suggested to play important roles in severe neurodevelopmental conditions like schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder, but this has never been examined on a large scale in autoimmune disorders. In this research, we aim to identify novel disease-associated loci using whole-genome sequencing data from affected families and analyse their functional impacts. 

Meanwhile, I am involved in another project that focuses on building a high-quality personal ‘omni-genome’ by integrating long-read whole-genome sequencing with genotyping and functional data, in order to resolve large structural variations in complex genome regions especially those related to immunology. 

Before starting at DIL, I completed my undergraduate and master’s degree at Peking University, majoring in pharmaceutical sciences and chemical biology, respectively.