{"id":69,"date":"2025-01-25T21:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T21:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/?page_id=69"},"modified":"2025-11-14T01:16:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T01:16:46","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Stanford University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rivas Lab is located in the Department of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University. To learn more about the Department click below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn More<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Undegraduate Students<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Elianna Knight (2021-2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.S. in Mathematical and Computational Science and an M.S. in Statistics. Elianna is now at Two Sigma Ventures and an MD student at Yale University. Research focused on genetics of variance in biomarker levels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Larissa Lauer (2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undegraduate in Department of Data Science. Research focuses on meta regression models in rare variant association studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Austin Yang (2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undergraduate in Department of Applied Mathematics. Research focuses on associating chemical structures with biochemical assay data. Computational chemistry leveraging Generative AI to identify new molecules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Amin Sajjadian (2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undegraduate in Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. His research focuses on variance partitioning of complex traits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Graduate Students<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Dr. Yosuke Tanigawa <\/a>(2017-2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD student in the lab. His research focused on dissecting the genetics of complex traits into components<\/a>, mapping the genetics of biomarkers<\/a>, developing methods for training polygenic risk scores<\/a>, and building an atlas of polygenic risk scores<\/a>. Yosuke is now a research scientist at MIT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ruilin Li <\/a>(2019-2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD student in the lab co-mentored with Prof. Robert Tibshirani. His research focused on High Dimensional Statistics. Ruilin developed methods for training polygenic risk score models for time-to-event data (Cox proportional hazards model)<\/a> for ultra-high dimensional datasets, fast algorithms for training polygenic risk scores from population genome sequencing data<\/a>. Now at Citadel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Junyang Qian<\/a> (2018-2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD student in the lab co-mentored with Prof. Trevor Hastie. Junyang’s research focused on developing fast algorithms for ultra-high dimensional problems in human genetics<\/a> and developing algorithms for sparse reduced rank regression of multiple phenotypes with human genetic data<\/a>. Now a Researcher at PDT Partners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Matthew Aguirre<\/a> (2017-2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff scientist in Rivas Lab. PhD candidate in Department of Biomedical Data Science. His research focused on developing methods for training trait component based polygenic risk scores<\/a>. He is now a PhD student in Prof. Jonathan Pritchard’s lab.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Guhan Venkataraman<\/a> (2017-2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD student in the lab. His research focused on the genetics of inflammatory bowel diseases<\/a>, on developing methods for rare variant association studies<\/a>, the genetics of biomarkers<\/a>, and on Global Biobank Engine<\/a>. He is now Machine Learning Lead at ReCode Therapeutics<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Oscar Aguilar (2023-2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab. Oscar’s research focused on developing machine learning models for multiomics disease risk prediction<\/a>, and developing hidden markov models (HMM) for assigning constraint to genetic variants<\/a> and assessing their relevance to diseases like schizophrenia and epilepsy. Now at MITRE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jacob Edelson (2021-2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab. Worked on local ancestry GWAS and genetics of COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Thomas Le Menestrel (2023-2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab. His research focused on multiomics disease prediction across multiple ancestries<\/a> and training a foundation model for small molecule binding predictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Salma Zainana (2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab. Her research focuses on meta regression modeling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Oliver Bear Don’t Walk IV<\/a> (2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab. Worked on deep learning methods to tag clinical notes. Now an Assistant Professor, Biomedical Informatics, at University of Washington, School of Medicine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mamie Wang <\/a>(2018-2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab. Worked on multilevel mixture models. Now a Bioinformatics Engineer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Anna Cichonska <\/a>(2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student in the lab. Worked on tensor decomposition of genetic datasets. Now a Scientist and Founding Member of Harmonic Discovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Robert Minneker (2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab. Worked on non-additive genetic analysis. Now a Machine Learning Engineer at Apple.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Helena Xu (2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab working on decomposition of waveforms using wavelets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Michael Wainberg<\/a>(2018-2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduate student in the lab. Worked on inferring the causal effects of obesity on type 2 diabetes<\/a>, the challenges and opportunities with transcriptome-wide association studies<\/a>, and a study of dopaminergic stimulants<\/a>. Now a faculty member at University of Toronto.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Bem Iordaah<\/a> (2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduate student in the lab working on artificial intelligence dashboards for tumor boards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Simran Nayak (2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master’s student in the lab working on decomposition of waveforms using wavelets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Emily Flynn (2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD student primarily advised by Prof. Russ Altman. Worked on the genetics of sex hormones including testosterone levels in men and women<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Postdoctoral Fellows<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Dr. David Amar<\/a> (2017-2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow with my lab and Prof. Euan Ashley’s lab. His research focused on the genetics of COVID-19<\/a>, developing graphical models for causal inference in population biobanks<\/a>, and the molecular biology of exercise<\/a>. He is now a Senior Lecturer at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Christopher DeBoever<\/a> (2017-2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow. His research focused on assessing digital phenotyping for population biobank datasets<\/a>, assessing medical relevance of protein truncating variants<\/a>, and developing rare variant association methods<\/a>. He is now at Maze Therapeuetics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Jack O’Sullivan <\/a>(2024-2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Cardiology fellow at Stanford. His research focuses on the genetics of HFpEF and using machine learning and AI to predict cardiovascular disease outcomes with a combination of genetic and non-genetic factors.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Seth Sharp<\/a> (2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Anna Gloyn and Rivas Lab. Focused on training polygenic risk score models for type 1 diabetes across multi-ancestry cohorts.<\/a> He is now a Postdoctoral fellow at Broad Institute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Fatima Rodriguez<\/a> (2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow focused on cardiovascular medicine and biomarker genetics<\/a>, and on health disparities. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Vineeta Agarwala <\/a>(2017-2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow focused on biomarker and cancer genetics<\/a>. She is now a Venture Partner at A16Z and physician at Stanford Medicine. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Alex Ioannidis<\/a> (2019-2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Rivas Lab. Focused on the genetics of COVID-19 in multi-ethnic cohorts, and the population genetics of Eastern Island. Alex is now a faculty at UC Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Johanne Marie Justesen<\/a>(2017-2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow focused on cardiovascular medicine and disease progression studies. Johanne is now at Novo Nordisk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Tuomo Kiiskinen<\/a> (2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow focused on artificial intelligence tools for tumor dashboard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Daniel Montserrat<\/a> (2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow in the lab. His research focused on the genetics of COVID-19<\/a>. Project that brought together international collaborators and companies. He is now VP of Data Science at Galatea Bio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Yongchan Kwon<\/a> (2020-2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow focused on genetics of COVID-19<\/a> and Shapley values<\/a>. He is now Assistant Professor of Statistics at Columbia University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Scott Oshiro<\/a> (2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow with background in music theory and quantum computing. Developing quantum computing algorithms for human genetics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Ruoyi Cai<\/a> (2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral fellow focused on developing algorithms for optimizing clinical trials. Joint postdoc with Prof. Euan Ashley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stanford University Rivas Lab is located in the Department of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University. To learn more about the Department click below. Undegraduate Students Elianna Knight (2021-2023) B.S. in Mathematical and Computational Science and an M.S. in Statistics. Elianna is now at Two Sigma Ventures and an MD student at Yale University. Research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-69","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrivas.su.domains\/gbe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}