Our Team
Meet the talented researchers and staff members who make our work possible.
Na Sun
Principal Investigator / AI Whitehead Fellow
Dr. Na Sun is a Whitehead AI Fellow and Principal Investigator at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. She received her S.B. in Life Science from Linyi University in 2009, followed by an S.M. in Bioinformatics and Developmental Biology from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013. In 2017, Dr. Sun moved to Cambridge and worked at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard as a Bioinformatics Specialist. She began her graduate studies in computational biology at MIT in 2020, earning her Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2024.
Email: nasun@wi.mit.edu
Publications: Google Scholar
Sumiko Williams
Administrative Lab Manager
Sumiko is an Administrative Lab Manager who has worked at the Whitehead Institute for 15 years. She enjoys learning and creating new craft projects.
Email: swilliam@wi.mit.edu
Sophia Davenport
Bioinformatics Technician
Sophia holds a BS in Genetics and Global Health from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was involved in epidemiological research through the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study. She also completed a Pharmaceutical Microbiology internship at AbbVie, focusing on preservative effectiveness in ophthalmic solutions. Most recently, she earned an MS in Bioinformatics from Boston University. During her time there, she interned at Alamar Biosciences, developing a dashboard to visualize and assess performance metrics for multiplex proteomic assays. Outside the lab, she enjoys hiking, skiing, traveling, and exploring coffee shops around the city.
Email: sdavenport@wi.mit.edu
Codes: GitHub
Albert Hung
Graduate Student
Albert is a PhD Student in EECS at MIT. His research interests lie at the intersection of biology and machine learning. Specifically, he aims to develop novel machine-learning algorithms that utilize multimodal biological data to streamline discovery and improve medical treatments. Prior to MIT, Albert received his B.S.E in Computer Science at the University of Michigan.
Email: azhung@wi.mit.edu
Yan Cui
Research Intern
Yan earned his Master’s degree in Informatics from Kyoto University and his Bachelor’s degree in Automation from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research focuses on developing novel deep learning models to advance the understanding of biological systems.
Email: ycui@wi.mit.edu
Join Our Team
We are always looking for passionate and talented individuals to join our research group. If interested, please contact Dr. Na Sun with your CV and a brief statement of research interests.