Albert Keung, Ph.D.

Albert Keung is a synthetic biologist and stem cell engineer who works at North Carolina State University as an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, a University Faculty Scholar and Goodnight Early Career Innovator. His group developed new technologies and experimental platforms to study epigenetic regulation in stem cell-derived models of early human neurodevelopment, to help decipher the ‘histone code’ using protein-engineering platforms, and to engineer synthetic biology systems for new applications outside the realm of native biology, such as DNA-based digital data storage.

Through the Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship, Keung will immerse himself in the field of interpretable machine learning through the expertise and mentorship of Cynthia Rudin of Duke University. Specifically, he will focus on key approaches to deal with the sparsity of representation, especially in the context of the immense diversity of human health and biology, and how interpretable machine-learning methods can promote responsible and equitable models in the face of this challenge. Related interpretable methods could provide insights into biological function rather than just establish correlations, a common challenge in data-intensive biological research. Supporting these efforts will be the development of new approaches to interface iterative experimental design cycles with machine learning to explore parameter spaces both native and non-native to biology. A central goal of the fellowship will be to develop strategies in which molecular and biological concepts can be fused with disparate macroscale data types and applied to challenges facing society, including health care, clinical outcomes, drug discovery and epidemiology.