Team

A/Prof Emily Wong

Lab Head

Emily received her PhD from the University of Sydney in Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics. She trained as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory–European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK. There, she studied the regulatory evolution of mammalian tissues. She returned to Australia as an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Fellow to the University of Queensland where she worked on genomic control. Emily joined the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute as Faculty and Head of the Regulatory Systems Lab. She is also an Associate Professor at the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at UNSW Sydney.

e.wong {at} victorchang.edu.au 

e.s.wong {at} unsw.edu.au

Emily S Wong
Emily S Wong
Lab Head

Qing Wang

Postdoctoral scientist

Qing is a computational postdoctoral researcher working on large-scale multi-omics data generated using single-cell technology. Her research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular changes of lung stem cells with the impact of aging and exercise. In her spare time, Qing likes to play badminton, pilates, swim, get close to nature and try yummy food.

q.wang {at} victorchang.edu.au

Qing-Wang New
Qing Wang
Postdoctoral scientist

Lithin Louis

Postdoctoral scientist

l.louis {at} victorchang.edu.au

Lithin-Lewis New
Lithin Karmel Louis
Postdoctoral scientist

Xuan Zhang

Postdoctoral scientist

Xuan is a post-doctoral scientist at the Wong Lab. Before joining the Victor Chang Institute, she received her bachelor's and master's degrees at Xiamen University, China and then pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Technology Sydney. She has a diverse background in computer science and bioinformatics. Her research focuses on applying deep learning methods to discover unknown genome patterns. Outside work, Xuan loves traveling, trying out good food and cute animals. Also, she is a ping-pong fan. If you also like ping-pong, she would love to play together.

x.zhang {at} victorchang.edu.au

Xuan-Zhang New
Xuan Zhang
Postdoctoral scientist

Yi-Hua Yang

Research Assistant

y.yang {at} victorchang.edu.au

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Yi-Hua Yang
Research Assistant

Paola Cornejo

PhD Candidate

Paola completed her undergraduate studies in Genomic Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México - UNAM). During her studies, she started working on projects related to the evolution of sex determination systems in vertebrates through a collaboration with researchers at UNAM and the University of Bath in the UK. She is currently a PhD student at Wong Lab (since 2020). In her project, she aims to dissect the composition of enhancers, sequences that control the spatio-temporal expression of genes and are the key elements to understanding developmental and disease processes. Paola is particularly interested in heart enhancers. Her areas of interest are genomics, bioinformatics, machine learning, evolution and conservation. In her free time, Paola enjoys long walks, taking pictures of plants and birds, and spending time with friends and family. She is also a culinary aficionado and, one day would like to volunteer as a zookeeper.

p.cornejo {at} victorchang.edu.au

Paola Cornejo New
Paola Cornejo
PhD Candidate

Veronika Petrova

PhD Candidate

Veronika has a background in economics and finance, before discovering her passion for bioinformatics. Prior to PhD, she completed a Master of Biostatistics degree from the University of Sydney and worked as a research assistant at John Rasko Lab where she studied the role of epigenetic modifications in alternative splicing. Her PhD project aims to computationally predict connections between genes and enhancers, the regulatory sequences in DNA that have the potential to switch on or switch off the transcription. She uses data from single-cell experiments to uncover cell-type specific regulatory programs. Her previous training comes very handy since her work relies on various statistical and computational methods. Outside the studies, Veronika tries to keep a regular yoga practice and enjoys an occasional jog on a beach.

v.petrova {at} victorchang.edu.au

Veronika-Petrova New
Veronika Petrova
PhD Candidate

Jack Clark

PhD Candidate

j.clarke {at} victorchang.edu.au

Jack-Clark New
Jack Clarke
PhD Candidate

Gabrielle Smith

PhD Candidate

Gabrielle was awarded a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours (Biology) from the Australian National University, Canberra in 2021. Her Honours thesis, supervised by A/Prof Maja Adamska, investigated the identity and binding motifs of developmental transcription factors in the calcareous sea sponge Sycon Capricorn using phylogenetic methods and ChIP-Seq. She worked as a research assistant at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU, undertaking a phylogenetic study on the evolution of epithelial polarity proteins with Prof Barry Thompson. She then joined the SARS-CoV2 Genomic Sequencing Team at the Research School of Biology at ANU as a technician working on DNA sequencing of COVID-19 samples from patients in the ACT. Gabrielle commenced her PhD in August 2021 and is working on understanding the epigenomics and chromatin architecture dynamics of cardiac injury and regeneration in vertebrates. Broadly, her scientific interests centre around the evolution of gene regulation and its functional consequences.

Outside of the lab, she can be found exploring new hiking trails in national parks or on the hunt for the best coffee or wine tasting.

g.smith {at} victorchang.edu.au

Gabrielle-Smith New
Gabrielle Smith
PhD Candidate

Zelun Li

Honours Student

z.li {at} victorchang.edu.au

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Zelun Li
Honours Student

Karthik Hemanthakumar

Postdoctoral scientist

k.hemanthakumar {at} victorchang.edu.au

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Karthik Hemanthakumar
Postdoctoral scientist

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