Principal Investigator
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Nadav is an assistant professor at NYU School of Medicine in the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. He is also affiliated with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He earned his PhD in computer science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2021 under the supervision of Michal Linial and Nathan Linial. He was then a postdoctoral scholar at UCSF in the lab of Jimmie Ye. In his free time, Nadav enjoys reading, cooking, meditating and watching anime shows.
Research Associate / Incoming PhD Student
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Anushka completed her undergraduate studies at UC San Diego, where she gained research experience at Scripps Research. She then pursued a Master’s in Computational Biology at Carnegie Mellon University, where her academic projects fostered a strong interest in leveraging artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs), for biological research. In the Brandes Lab she applies genomic AI models to identify causal genes affecting disease risk and seeks to train the next generation of genomic language models. In her free time, Anushka enjoys taking dance classes, working out, and trying different restaurants.
Incoming PhD Student
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Jack completed his undergraduate in Biology and MS in Biomedical Informatics at Stony Brook University, where he focused on the application of genomic language models to metagenomics and antimicrobial resistance. He is currently interested in genomic AI and its use in functional variant effect prediction, and he will be starting a PhD in Data Science at NYU in Fall 2026. In his free time, he enjoys backpacking, bicycling and snowboarding!
Master's Student
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Akshay is a Master’s student at New York University, specializing in Machine Learning and Computer Engineering. His research interests lie at the intersection of AI and the natural sciences, with a particular focus on Machine Learning for Computational Biomedicine and Drug Discovery. Outside of his academic work, he enjoys exploring the history and philosophy of science and spending time hiking.
Collaborating PhD Student
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Po-Yu Lin is an attending physician in the Department of Neurology and Genomic Medicine at National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Taiwan. He earned his M.D. from the National Cheng Kung University School of Medicine and completed his Master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Brandes. His clinical and research interests focus on variant pathogenicity interpretation and clinical decision support. After graduation, Po-Yu continued collaborating with the Brandes Lab, driven by a strong passion for the interpretability of genomic language models and their integration into clinical practice.
