Can you tell us a little about you and your research?
I’m currently a postdoctoral fellow jointly supervised by Dr Raheleh Rahbari at Wellcome Sanger Institute and Dr Tim Coorens at EMBL-EBI. I completed my PhD at Harvard Medical School, where I developed computational methods to detect copy number variation in single-cell genomics data.
Currently, I work at the intersection of single-cell genomics and somatic mosaicism, which is a phenomenon where individual cells in the human body accumulate mutations in their lifespan, with implications for human development, ageing, and diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegeneration.
What expectations did you have of Cambridge before arriving?
I had never set foot in the UK before my move, except for a campus visit last October. My PIs kindly suggested I come before winter set in, while Cambridge was still at its most beautiful, and they were right.
My impression of the UK before arriving probably came from pop culture: the candle-lit dining halls of Harry Potter, the foggy atmosphere of Sherlock Holmes. Most recently, Clarkson’s Farm, with the broad countryside accents. I expected it to be a completely different environment from what I’d known, so I was looking forward to the move.
Have your thoughts about Cambridge changed from when you first arrived, to now?
I’ve made several moves, coast to coast to coast, originally from a southeast coastal city in China, then Vancouver, Montreal, Boston, and now Cambridge. Compared to all those cities, Cambridge is much smaller, but that’s part of the appeal. It’s fundamentally a university town. Most people I’ve met are students or early-career researchers, and even in pubs you can overhear conversations about research, which I find rather charming.
The community is compact and genuinely tight knit, which makes it easy to build connections quickly.
Have you found any challenges when adapting to Cambridge?
I initially thought the visa process might be quite challenging. But it turned out that because my primary affiliation is with EMBL-EBI, which is an intergovernmental organisation, the administrative side was far smoother than I anticipated. The HR team were also wonderful, they handled the inductions efficiently and made the entire transition seamless.
How does the research culture at Cambridge differ compared to the USA?
I’m not sure I can give a fully objective answer, partly because I’m also navigating a transition in my career, from being a student to operating as a more independent researcher.
The supervision model has changed. I now have two supervisors and I’m moving from a purely computational lab to a wet-lab-plus-computational arrangement. With so many variables shifting at once, I couldn’t offer a definitive comparison of how the research environment here differs from my previous one.
But I would say that in both environments, the research is very rigorous, and there are substantial collaboration opportunities within the institute and beyond.
Have you engaged with the Postdoc Academy since you’ve been here?
Not yet, but I’ve signed up for the newsletter, which I think is the most important step. I’ve also joined the Newcomers and Visiting Scholars group. They’ve organised coffee club events, and I attended one. I plan to engage as much as I can – I’ve not been here long, so I’m looking forward to more activities and events.
Do you have any suggestions for anyone considering coming to Cambridge for a postdoc?
Since arriving, I've met quite a few people who made a similar move from the US to the UK. The prospect can feel daunting – visa, housing, logistics – but the institutional support, particularly at places like EBI and Sanger, makes it far more manageable than you'd expect. I'd encourage people to seriously consider it.
And any recommendations for others who have recently arrived for a postdoc in Cambridge?
I’m still quite new myself, so take this with a grain of salt, but as a newcomer I’d say engage early and broadly. Attend as many activities as you can while everything is still fresh.
I’d also recommend pursuing a College affiliation. From what I’ve heard, it opens up a social and intellectual network that’s quite distinct from your department.
How do you talk about your research to non-specialists?
I always like to start by saying that we, as humans, are walking bags of mutations. As a cell divides and replicates, every time it copies its own genome, it makes tiny errors, and sometimes these errors can be harmful. Some are small, single-letter changes in the DNA, while others are large-scale, like a cell gaining or losing an entire chunk of a chromosome. These are what we call copy number changes.
Different mutational processes leave characteristic signatures on the genome, and by reading those signatures, we can infer what went wrong and when. This is how some cells acquire a fitness advantage and expand into clonal populations, which is essentially how tumours arise. But it’s not only about cancer.
During my PhD, I focused on the brain, where mutations in neurons can shape neurodevelopment and potentially contribute to neurodegeneration. Now, I’m moving into human reproduction. In the testes and ovaries, somatic mutations in germ cells can be passed on to the next generation, so understanding what drives those mutations has direct consequences for hereditary disease.
My research explores these mutational trajectories: how mutations accumulate, how they confer advantages to certain cells, and what that means for human development, ageing, and disease.