The Hwang Lab is actively recruiting new members.
Please see our Positions page for details on how to apply.
Yunha Hwang, PhD
Samuel A. Goldblitch Career Development Assistant Professor in Biology, EECS, and the Schwarzman College of Computing
Yunha also serves as the Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Tatta Bio, a scientific nonprofit dedicated to advancing genomic AI for biological discovery. She received her Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University and B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. Her research interests span machine learning for biomanufacturing, microbial evolution, and open science.
yunha [at] mit [dot] edu
Tori Yetman
Administrative Assistant
Yetman27 [at] mit [dot] edu
Rachel Silverstein, PhD
Biswas Postdoctoral Fellow
Rachel received her BSc from the University of Toronto in Molecular Genetics and PhD from Harvard University in Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Her previous research focuses on applying high throughput protein engineering and machine learning techniques to develop safer and more effective genome editing technologies. She is interested in the intersection of genetics and AI and developing tools to help us better understand the molecules encoded by genomic sequences.
Hongwei Tu
PhD Student, EECS
Hongwei’s research focuses on generative modeling and efficient machine learning for genomics and molecular systems.
hongweit [at] mit [dot] edu
Zhilei Bei
PhD Student, EECS
Zhilei is a Ph.D. student at MIT EECS. She is interested in developing AI and machine learning methods to discover, understand, and engineer the molecular machinery of living systems. Before joining the Hwang lab, she worked on protein language models and generative AI for spatial transcriptomics. Outside of research, she enjoys running, tennis, and road trips.
beizl42 [at]mit[dot]edu
Jordan Hoff
PhD Student, Microbiology
Jordan is a PhD student in the Ovchinnikov and Hwang labs with MIT Microbiology. He's interested in the development, interpretation, and applications of genomic language models, particularly for Biosynthetic Gene Cluster discovery. He attended UC Berkeley majoring in Microbiology, working on phage and metagenomics.He is co-advised by Prof. Hwang and Prof. Ovchinnikov.
j_hoff[at]mit[dot]edu
Tom Lankiewicz, PhD
Research Scientist
Tom is a Research Scientist in the Hwang lab. He received his PhD from University of California Santa Barbara in Evolution, Ecology, and Marine Biology, while he completed his dissertation in the Chemical Engineering Department studying under Professor Michelle O’Malley. His past and present research focuses on the intersection of synthetic biology and evolution, centering around the untapped technological potential of biology. He is very excited to partner with Professor Hwang to contribute his biological wet-lab expertise to the Hwang lab’s research program.lanki15[at]mit[dot]edu
Jeffrey Ouyang-Zhang, PhD
Tayebati Postdoctoral Fellow
Jeffrey received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin in 2026. His previous work focused on protein structure prediction and design. He is currently interested in designing models that learn from evolutionary sequence data.
He is co-advised by Prof. Hwang and Prof. Ovchinnikov.
joz [at] mit [dot] edu
Sunhee Bae, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Sunhee received her PhD in Chemistry from MIT, where she developed methods to investigate glycan mediated host-microbe interactions. She is interested in high throughput approaches for genome-to-metabolome mapping.
She is co-advised by Prof. Hwang and Prof. Gene-wei Li.
baebae [at] mit [dot] edu
Aransa Griñen Muñoz, PhD
MIT-Novo Nordisk Artificial Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellow
Aransa received her PhD in Biological and Medical Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Cátolica de Chile, where she worked on redesigning PET hydrolases using deep learning tools and conducting experimental validation.
Her current research focuses on molecular tools and machine learning.
aransa[at] mit [dot] edu
Anisha Parsan
UROP student
Anisha Parsan is a senior at MIT studying Computer Science and Molecular Biology. She’s interested in building generative methods that leverage protein and genomic representations to design new biomachinery and therapeutic formats that translate in the lab. Prior to joining the Hwang Lab, she worked on structure-based antibody design models, sequence optimization, and enzyme design.
aparsan[@]mit[dot]edu
Jia Lu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Jia received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in 2024.
At MIT she is interested in designing synthetic genetic parts to program multicellular dynamics and enable genetic engineering in non-model organisms.
She is co-advised by Prof. Hwang and Prof. Christopher Voigt.
jialu[dot]bio[at]gmail[dot]com