Qiran Jia

Education

  1. Ph.D. in Biostatistics · University of Southern California

    August 2022 – January 2027 (expected)

  2. M.Sc. in Biostatistics · New York University

    September 2020 – May 2022

  3. B.A. in Statistics and Chemistry · University of California, Santa Barbara

    September 2015 – December 2019

Experience

  1. Computational Biology Intern · Cellanome

    June 2026 – August 2026 · San Diego, CA

    • Analyzed multimodal single-cell datasets generated on the R3200 platform with CellCage technology across diverse experimental settings, using rigorous, streamlined, and reproducible workflows.
    • Developed a deep-learning trajectory-modeling framework and supporting internal software for longitudinal live-cell imaging, capturing cellular morphodynamic patterns and revealing biological cell states beyond snapshot morphology or endpoint transcriptomics alone.
    • Applied visualization tools, integrative morphodynamic–transcriptomic analyses, and pathway enrichment to characterize dynamic cell states and their associated transcriptomic profiles.
  2. Graduate Research Assistant, Biostatistics · USC Department of Population and Public Health Sciences

    August 2022 – present · Los Angeles, CA

    • Engineered LUCID, a statistical quasi-mediation framework and R package for multi-omics clustering and inference with high-dimensional exposures and outcomes — rewritten for a 120× speedup and extended with variable selection, uncertainty quantification, missing-data handling, flexible integration strategies, and visualization.
    • Developed Praxis-BGM, a scalable Bayesian transfer-learning framework for Gaussian mixture models leveraging natural-gradient variational inference and informative biological priors to improve stability, accuracy, and interpretability in high-dimensional, small-sample omics, with applications to TCGA and METABRIC data (Bioinformatics, 2026).
    • Implemented computational tools and pipelines for multimodal data integration, label transfer, and biological discovery with AIMS@USC, extended to single-cell and spatial transcriptomics (e.g. Xenium).
    • Collaborated with interdisciplinary teams across epidemiology, environmental health, and computational biology, providing statistical consulting on studies of environmental exposures such as PFAS and their multi-omics-mediated health outcomes.
  3. Graduate Research Assistant · New York University

    February 2021 – September 2022 · New York, NY

    • Conducted biostatistics and deep learning research in 3D medical imaging, adversarial robustness, and neuroimaging inference.
    • Designed BiTr-UNet, a CNN–Transformer architecture for 3D brain tumor segmentation, presented at the MICCAI BrainLes workshop.
    • Co-developed scalable Hidden Markov Random Field (HMRF)- and deep-learning-based spatial multiple-testing frameworks — including DeepFDR — for inference across hundreds of thousands of FDG-PET voxels, improving power while controlling false discovery rate.

Skills

Programming

  • Python
  • R
  • JAX
  • PyTorch
  • NumPy
  • Scanpy
  • Seurat
  • ggplot2
  • Linux
  • Git

Statistical methods

  • Bayesian inference
  • Variational inference
  • Latent-variable & mixture models
  • Mediation analysis
  • Model-based clustering
  • Longitudinal data analysis
  • Survival analysis
  • Multiple testing under dependence

Machine learning

  • Representation learning
  • Self-supervised learning
  • Computer vision
  • Transformer-based models
  • Transfer learning

Computational biology

  • Multi-omics integration
  • Transcriptomics
  • Cell imaging & morphology
  • Statistical genetics

Computing

  • GPU / CUDA
  • Unix & cluster computing
  • Scientific software development

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