Principal Investigator
Dechen Lin, Ph.D
Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Ostrow School of Dentistry
Associate Director, USC Head and Neck Center
My research background is in cancer genomics and epigenomics. I direct an NCI-funded laboratory, and the major interest of my work is investigating genomic and epigenomics abnormalities in upper aerodigestive cancers.
Current lab Members
Hua Zhao, M.D, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Fellow
Hua Zhao graduated from Nanchang University with an MD and is a Ph.D. candidate at Xi’an Jiaotong University. As a Postdoctoral Scholar at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she studied the molecular genetics of upper GI cancers and premalignant lesions. Currently, she is in Lin lab investigating the molecular pathophysiology and neoplastic progression in GI malignancies.
Chehyun Nam, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Nam graduated from Pusan National University focusing on cancer molecular biology. He was also trained to study drug repositioning to develop novel therapeutic methods. As a postdoc, he is working with Dr. Lin and investigating the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms in GI malignancies.
Ethan Pan
Ph.D. Student
Ethan graduated from UCSC with a Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology B.S. degree. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in Biomedical and Biological Sciences. Ethan is now doing research with Dr. Chehyun Nam and Dr. Lin to study early tumorigenesis of oral and esophageal cancer using organoid modeling. Ethan joined the Lin lab in Nov 2022.
Tianming Zhou
Ph.D. Candidate
Tianming graduated from Northwest A&F University with a bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine and will receive a master’s degree in Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine from USC in July. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Craniofacial Molecular Biology. Tianming joined Lin’s lab in April 2023
Talia Wenger
Medical Student
Talia graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. She is currently an MD candidate at the Keck School of Medicine on a Dean’s Research Scholar year with plans to pursue a career in otolaryngology.
Tommy Tilton
Master’s Student
Tommy graduated from Duke University with a Computer Science B.A. degree and worked as a software engineer at Amazon for four years. He is currently a Master’s Student in Translational Biomedical Informatics and is working with Dr. Lin in performing multi-omics data analysis on upper aerodigestive cancer.
Xuyu Chen
Visiting Scholar
Xuyu is a visiting MD student from the Department of Gastroenterology, Yangzhou University. He focused on the molecular mechanisms of gastrointestinal cancers and precancerous lesions. Currently, he is in Lin lab to study tumorigenesis of gastric cancer using organoid modeling. Xuyu joined the Lin lab in Jan 2025.
Siying Wang
Visiting Scholar
Siying is a visiting Ph.D student in oncology at Nanjing Medical University, focusing on cancer molecular biology. Currently, she studies gastric cancer tumorigenesis using organoid modeling. Siying joined the Lin lab in Jan 2025.
Qi Shi
Visiting Scholar
Qi is a visiting medical student at Fudan University. Now he focuses on tumor initiation and early tumorigenesis in GI malignancies working with Hua. Qi joined Lin Lab in Dec 2024.
Jerry Wu
Undergrad Researcher
Jerry Wu is an undergraduate researcher at USC. He is majoring in Biology (Molecular, cellular, and developmental biology track) and currently works with Dr.Hua Zhao and Tianming Zhou for organoid maintenance.
Zhixuan Jing
Research Associate
Zhixuan graduates from the National University of Singapore with a Biomedical Informatics MSc and works as a research associate, mainly working on single-cell analysis and spatial transcriptomic analysis. Zhixuan joined Lin lab in September 2024.
Hoiyi Huang
Master’s Student
Hoiyi Huang graduated from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry. Currently, she is a master’s student of biochemistry and molecular medicine. She is currently working with Ethan and Dr. Lin to study tumorigenesis of the salivary gland using organoid model. Hoiyi joined Lin Lab in January 2025.
Alumni
Stephanie Wong, M.D.
Otolaryngology Resident
Stephanie is an otolaryngology resident in the USC clinician-scientist training program. She graduated from Caltech with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry where she worked with Dr. David Baltimore studying cancer neoantigen discovery. She received her MD from the California University of Science and Medicine.
Benjamin Ziman, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Fellow
Benjamin Ziman graduated from UC Merced, earning his doctoral degree in Quantitative and Systems Biology. His thesis work focused on stem cells on organismal growth. Currently, he is a postdoc working in Lin lab, investigating epigenetic mechanisms for tumor immunity in GI malignancies.
Boyan Hu
Undergraduate student
Boyan is in his final year as an undergraduate student at USC. He is an intern doing research with Dr. Hua Zhao to investigate early neoplastic transformation and premalignant biology using genetically engineered organoid models. Boyan joined the Lin lab in Aug 2022.
Dongzi Peng
Dongzi is a visiting PhD student from the Department of Gastroenterology, Central South University. Before coming to USC, she was Chief resident at the Department of Gastroenterology, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, with clinical experience in gastroenterology. Currently, she is working to understand fibroblast heterogeneity esophageal cancers in the Lin lab.
Casey Collet
Medical Student
Casey Collet graduated from UCLA with a degree in Psychobiology. She has experience with behavioral research in schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, she is an MD candidate at Keck School of Medicine on her Dean Research Scholar year. She plans on pursuing Otolaryngology for residency, with a special interest in head and neck carcinoma. Casey joined us in June 2022.
Le Zhang, M.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Le Zhang graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University as an MD. As a visiting scholar, she investigated therapy resistance in squamous cancer at UCLA School of Medicine. Subsequently, she joined Cedars-Sinai and is now a joint postdoc fellow in both Lin lab and Neil Bhowmick’s lab, studying the biology and regulation of lipid metabolism in GI malignancies.
Megha Sheth
Medical Student
Megha Sheth is an MD candidate at Keck School of Medicine on her Dean Research Scholar year. Currently, she is doing research with Dr. Benjamin Ziman and Dr. Chehyun Nam to study head-neck cancer lung metastasis using in vivo animal imaging model and epigenomic profiling. Megha joined the Lin lab in June 2022.
Qian Yang, Ph.D
Qian Yang graduated from Shantou University Medical College and as a visiting student at Kowffler’s Lab where she received specialized training in the use of processing and analyzing next general sequencing data (RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq, Single-cell RNA-Seq, WGBS etc.). After graduation, she joins Lin’s Lab to study the epigenetic and transcription patterns involved in upper GI cancer. Currently, she is a collaborator of Lin’s group, doing bioinformatics analysis.
Dr. Yuan Jiang obtained her Ph.D. degree in Stem Cell Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015. She then started her postdoc training in cancer genomics at the Cancer Science Institute, Singapore from 2015-2018. From 2019-2021, Yuan worked in the labs of Dr. Lin and Dr. Koeffler as a joint postdoc fellow at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Yuan studied cancer genomics and transcriptional dysregulation in esophageal cancer under the supervision of Dr. Lin.
Dr. Yan Yi Jiang obtained his Ph.D. degree in Cell Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014. He then started his postdoc training at the Cancer Science Institute, Singapore from 2014-2018. From 2019-2021 he was a postdoc fellow jointly supervised by Dr. Lin and Dr. Koeffler at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, working on esophageal tumor immunity.
Yueyuan graduated from Sun Yat-sen University, earning her doctoral degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. In Ph.D., her research focused on developing useful prediction tools and comprehensive databases for epigenomics research. She was a postdoc working in the Lin lab at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, using next-generation sequencing methods (ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, ATAC-Seq, WGBS, WGS) to investigate the epigenomic changes that can lead to cancer development.
Collaborators
- Uttam Sinha, Director of Head and Neck Surgery Watt Family Endowed Chair for Head and Neck Cancers, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Anisa Shaker’s lab, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Koeffler lab, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- The Methyl Grammar lab at Hebrew University.
- Breunig lab, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA.
- Yang lab, Division of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics, Departments of Surgery and Biomedical Sciences, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Stephen Joseph Meltzer’s lab, Departments of Medicine and Oncology, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Stephen J. Freedland’s lab, Center for Integrated Research on Cancer and Lifestyle, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California.
- Neil Bhowmick’s lab, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 90048, USA.
- HAZAWA, Masaharu, Cell-Bionomics Research Unit, Institute for Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan.
- Henry Yang, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117599.