Research Interests
Jean Fan is a member of the faculty of Biomedical Engineering in the Center for Computational Biology at Johns Hopkins University.
Her research team, the JEFworks lab, is interested in understanding the molecular and spatial-contextual factors shaping cellular identity and heterogeneity. She develops machine learning and statistical approaches as open-source software for analyze high-dimensional, single cell and spatially resolved multi-omic data. Focused on understanding the spatial regulatory mechanisms that shape cellular identity and disease progression, Dr. Fan and her lab use cutting-edge imaging and sequencing technologies to characterize the organization cells within tissues. By developing novel computational tools to analyze these complex data sets, Dr. Fan and her lab are advancing our understanding of how cellular heterogeneity contributes to disease pathogenesis, progression, and prognosis. Dr. Fan is also the founder, director, and lead software developer for the non-profit organization CuSTEMized, which provides personalized STEM picture storybooks to encourage young girls to see themselves as scientists. The impact of Dr. Fan’s work has been recognized by several awards and honors, including the Forbes 30 Under 30, the Nature Research Award for Inspiring Science, the NSF CAREER Award, and the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award.
Dr. Fan was previously an NCI F99/K00 post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Xiaowei Zhuang at Harvard University where she developed computational methods for analyzing spatially resolved transcriptomics data and applied MERFISH to characterize cellular and subcellular heterogeneity. She received her PhD in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics at Harvard under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Kharchenko at the Department of Biomedical Informatics and in close collaboration with Dr. Catherine Wu at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where she developed computational methods for analyzing single-cell omics data to better understand the disease pathogenesis and progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Students interested in getting involved with the lab are encouraged to check out the JEFworks Lab website for more details.
Titles
- Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Affiliated Centers & Institutes
Education
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Physics, Harvard University, 2018-2020
- PhD, Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics, Harvard Medical School, 2018
- BS, Biomedical Engineering, Applied Math & Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, 2013
Recent Highlights
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February 20, 2024Johns Hopkins engineers develop a new computational method to precisely align spatial transcriptomics data across samples, resolutions, and technologies, enabling researchers to learn more about the underlying biology of cells.
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February 14, 2023There is a certain class of pediatric brain cancers that is “universally deadly,” with a median survival of 15 months and few, if any, viable treatment options. The key to combating these cancers might be in analyzing how the cells within tumor tissue—cancer cells, immune cells, and others—express genes and organize themselves spatially.
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June 8, 2021Jean Fan, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Early CAREER Award, which recognizes early stage scholars with high levels of promise and excellence.