The mission of the Laboratory for Statistical and Translational Genomics is to use statistical and computational approaches to understand cellular heterogeneity in human disease relevant tissues, to characterize genomic and molecular diversity across cell types,  to study the patterns of cell state transition and crosstalk of various cells using data generated from single-cell genomics, spatial transcriptomics, and other omics studies, and to translate these findings to the clinics. We are interested in developing novel statistical and machine learning tools to solve genetics and genomics related questions, and collaborating with other researchers to identify disease susceptibility genes and their acting cell types. We work on multiple human diseases including age-related macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, heart disease, chronic kidney disease, melanoma, testicular cancer, and gene therapy for rare diseases. Findings from our research will seed cell-specific functional studies, in vivo modeling, and precision therapeutic targeting of human diseases.