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Zhaorui (Elijah) Jiang

MPhil Student, Peking University

I am an MPhil student at Peking University with a dual BEng (Hons) background in Computer Science and Robotics from Ocean University of China and Heriot-Watt University. My research focuses on science intelligence, especially AI for life science, multi-omics learning, microbiome analysis, and protein-related machine learning.

  • Research interests: Science intelligence, AI for life science, spatial multi-omics, microbiome, protein design
  • Affiliation: Peking University
  • Last updated: March 23, 2026
Portrait of Zhaorui Jiang

About

Research profile

Current focus

My current work centers on building machine learning methods that can support biological discovery. I am particularly interested in how foundation models and representation learning can be adapted to genomics, microbiome analysis, and protein science.

Background

I have worked across computer science, robotics, metagenomics, spatial omics, and biomolecular machine learning. This interdisciplinary path continues to shape how I approach both research questions and tool building.

Updates

News and highlights

Oct 2025

OUC-China Team won a Gold Medal at the 2025 iGEM Competition. Project page

May 2025

I was invited to give a BCML seminar talk at Heriot-Watt University on genomics language models.

Nov 2024

I was invited to present BASALT at the BCML seminar at Heriot-Watt University.

Sep 2024

I was admitted to Peking University and also received the National Scholarship.

Aug 2024

The first version of the OUC and HWU survival guidance was released. Repository

Research

Selected research and projects

STProtein project figure

Spatial Multi-Omics

STProtein: Predicting Spatial Protein Expression from Multi-Omics Data

Zhaorui Jiang, Yingfang Yuan, Lei Hu, Wei Pang

SPARTA AAAI 2026 Oral

BASALT project figure

Microbiome

BASALT: Refining Binning from Metagenomic Data for Genome-Resolved Analysis

Core software maintainer

Nature Communications

Education

Academic training

Peking University logo

Peking University

2025 - 2028

MPhil in Environmental / Bioenergy Engineering

GPA: 3.8 / 4.0

Advisor: A/Prof. Ke Yu

Ocean University of China logo

Ocean University of China

2021 - 2025

BEng (Hons), Computer Science

GPA: 3.8 / 4.0, Rank: 3 / 104 (Top 3%)

Advisors: Prof. Yongjian Gu, Dr. Xiaowei Zhou, and A/Prof. Shugang Zhang

Experience

Research experience

Peking University logo

PKU EMBL, Peking University

Sep 2025 - Present

Lab member working on AI for metagenomics and BASALT software maintenance and development.

Advisor: A/Prof. Ke Yu

Monash University logo

THETA Team, Monash University

Sep 2025 - Present

Research assistant working on AI for vaccines and AI for CryoET.

Advisors: A/Prof. Vivek Naranbhai, Prof. Shirui Pan, and Dr. Yizhen Zheng

Tsinghua University logo

Beijing Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, Tsinghua University

Jun 2025 - Sep 2025

Intern student working on AI for protein research.

Advisor: Dr. Xu Wang

Beijing Institute of Technology logo

Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology

Jan 2025 - Sep 2025

Intern student working on genomics language models.

Advisor: Prof. Bin Shao

Heriot-Watt University logo

BCML Lab, Heriot-Watt University

Sep 2024 - May 2025

Lab member working on STProtein for spatial protein expression prediction from multi-omics data.

Advisors: Prof. Wei Pang and Dr. Yingfang (James) Yuan

Shanghai Jiao Tong University logo

Programmable Active Matter Lab, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Apr 2024 - Jul 2024

Intern student working on graph neural networks for chemistry.

Advisor: Prof. Wendong Wang

Ocean University of China research team logo

Quantum Information and Intelligent Computing Team

Apr 2024 - Jun 2025

Lab member working on hybrid quantum computing.

Advisors: Prof. Yongjian Gu and Dr. Yanan Li

Practice

Industry experience

Kuoyue Intelligent Drug logo

Kuoyue Intelligent Drug

Intern working on AI for antibody-related applications.

Advisor: Dr. Xiaomei Han

LXLTXLab logo

LXLTXLab

Researcher working on AI for organoids and co-leading the AI4Bio research team with Mr. Pengzhi Hao.

Thanks

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the mentors, collaborators, and friends who have supported my learning and research journey across Peking University, Tsinghua University, Monash University, Heriot-Watt University, Ocean University of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Beijing Institute of Technology.

In particular, I would like to thank A/Prof. Ke Yu, Prof. Wei Pang, Prof. Bin Shao, Dr. Yizhen Zheng, A/Prof. Vivek Naranbhai, Dr. Yingfang (James) Yuan, Dr. Lei Hu, Dr. Xu Wang, Dr. Kefan Chen, Prof. Yongjian Gu, Dr. Xiaowei Zhou, Dr. Shugang Zhang