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ZC

Biography

I am a cancer data scientist specialising in artificial intelligence and machine learning for large-scale molecular data analysis. I hold a first-class honours degree in Computer Science from Monash University, where I graduated as the top student, and a PhD in Cancer Data Science from the University of Sydney. After gaining software engineering experience at Goldman Sachs, I transitioned to cancer research and now serve as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Sydney and Senior Data Scientist at the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI).

My research focuses on developing and applying deep learning methods to cancer multi-omics data, with particular expertise in federated learning, generative models, and transformer architectures. As co-first author on the landmark Cancer Cell study mapping the proteomic landscape of 949 human cancer cell lines, I contributed to one of the field’s most widely used resources (230+ citations). My subsequent first-author publications in Cancer Discovery and Nature Communications have introduced novel approaches in federated deep learning for privacy-preserving cancer subtyping, and generative AI for synthetic augmentation of multi-omic datasets. I maintain active international collaborations with the Wellcome Sanger Institute (UK) and the University of Lisbon (Portugal).

In 2025, I was awarded a Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship to develop proteomic foundation models integrated with federated learning for multi-hospital cancer research. My work to date has generated over 900 citations (h-index: 8) and I have contributed to more than $1.59 million in competitive research funding. I am driven by the goal of translating advanced computational methods into practical tools that improve cancer diagnosis and prognosis through precision medicine.

Professional appointments

  1. Senior Data Scientist - Cancer Institute NSW Fellow

    Children's Medical Research Institute · Westmead
    Feb 2023 — Present
    • Developed new deep learning-based approach to incorporate human knowledge for multi-omic data integration
    • Designed and built multi-view VAE models customised for multi-omic data integration
    • Performed end-to-end whole exome/genome sequencing data analyses for germline/somatic mutations, copy number variations and structural variants
    • Performed end-to-end proteomic data analyses, including data QC, peptide-to-protein rollup, pre-processing, differential expression analysis, pathway analysis and survival analysis
    • Worked on integrating histopathological images with proteomic data to improve diagnosis
  2. Adjunct Lecturer

    University of Sydney · Sydney
    June 2026 — Present
    • Faculty of Medicine and Health
    • Promoted from Conjoint Associate Lecturer (2023–2026)
  3. Conjoint Associate Lecturer

    University of Sydney · Sydney
    June 2023 — June 2026
    • Faculty of Medicine and Health
  4. PhD Candidate

    University of Sydney / CMRI · Sydney
    Mar 2020 — Feb 2023
    • Thesis: Large-Scale and Pan-Cancer Proteogenomic Analyses with Machine Learning
    • Sydney Cancer Partners PhD Scholarship recipient
  5. Data Scientist

    Children's Medical Research Institute · Westmead
    Jan 2019 — Feb 2020
    • Built pipelines using existing models for single-cell RNA-seq analysis in mouse developmental biology
    • Built deep learning models for live-cell imaging data analysis
  6. Analyst Programmer

    Goldman Sachs · Melbourne
    Nov 2014 — Dec 2017
    • Communicated with business stakeholders and liaised regarding project scope with ongoing updates
    • Designed/developed/tested/deployed system solutions specialised in Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading (GSET)business flow
    • Provided production support and maitained the health of testing environment

Qualifications

2020 – 2023

Doctor of Philosophy (Cancer Data Science)

University of Sydney / Children’s Medical Research Institute

Thesis: Large-Scale and Pan-Cancer Proteogenomic Analyses with Machine Learning. Sydney Cancer Partners PhD Scholarship recipient.

2018

Master of Business Analytics (First Class Honours)

Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne

KPMG-MBS Data Challenge: 1st Prize (NLP). MBS Scholarship. Co-President, Business Analytics Club.

2011 – 2014

Bachelor of Computer Science (First Class Honours)

Monash University

Dux of Bachelor of Computer Science (highest overall ranking). Bellamy Awards (top student, 2011 & 2012). International Merit Scholarship.

Awards and honours

Technical skills

Machine learning & AI

  • Deep neural networks
  • Transformers
  • Variational autoencoders
  • Generative models
  • Federated learning
  • Multi-view integration

Bioinformatics & multi-omics

  • End-to-end proteomic analysis (QC, rollup, DE, pathway, survival)
  • Whole exome / genome sequencing
  • Copy number variation
  • Structural variants
  • Single-cell RNA-seq

Programming

  • Python
  • R
  • PyTorch
  • SQL
  • C++
  • Linux
  • Perl

Partners & affiliations