Dr Weini Huang

Profile

Weini Huang currently works on modelling cancer evolution and species interactions in biological systems. Before being a lecturer in mathematical biology in 2018, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Barts Cancer Institute, QMUL for modelling cancer spatial heterogeneity and the evolution of tumour resistance. She obtained her PhD in 2012 in Evolutionary Theory in the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Biology in north Germany.

Currently, Weini supervises 5 PhD students in the topics of evolutionary theory with application in species coevolution and cancer dynamics. Weini is interested in understanding how diversity and population patterns are formed and maintained in nature/human cell populations through theoretical approaches as well as their connections with experimental/clinical observations. She collaborates with experimental evolution groups and cancer biologists/clinicians, such as the evolution of trade-offs in a bacteria-ciliate system and drug resistance in ovarian cancer, ecDNA copy number distribution, mtDNA dynamcis in healthy liver. 

Undergraduate Teaching

Differential Equations (2017-2018,2019-2020, 2020-2021)

Postgraduate Teaching

Complex Systems (2018-2019)

Research

Publications

Google Scholar Profile

1. Werner et al. (2020) Measuring single cell divisions in human cancers from multi-region sequencing data. Nat. Comm., 11, 1035.
2. Retel, Kowallik, Huang et al. (2019) The feedback between selection and demography shapes genomic diversity during coevolution. Science Advances 5 (10), eaax0530.
3. Chkhaidze et al. (2019) Spatially constrained tumour growth affects the patterns of clonal selection and neutral drift in cancer genomic data. Plos Computational Biology, 5(7):e1007243.
4. Boddy, Huang, Aktipis. (2018) Life History Trade-Offs in Tumors. Current pathobiology reports 6 (4), 201-207. (Invited Review)
5. Park, Pichugin, Huang et al. (2019) Population size changes and extinction risk of populations driven by mutant interactors. Physical Review E 99 (2), 022305
6. Baker A-M, Huang et al. (2017). Robust RNA-based in situ mutation detection delineates colorectal cancer subclonal evolution. Nat. Comm., 8 (1), 1998.
7. Huang et al. (2017) Dynamical trade-offs arise from antagonistic coevolution and decrease intraspecific diversity. Nat. Comm 8 (1), 2059.
8. Amado, Fernández, Huang et al. (2016) Competing metabolic strategies in a multilevel selection model. Royal Society Open Science, 3:160544.
9. Huang et al. (2016). A resource-based game theoretical approach for the paradox of the plankton. PeerJ, 4:e2329.
10. Huang, Hauert, Traulsen. (2015) Stochastic game dynamics under demographic fluctuations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112:9064-9069.
11. Amado, Huang et al. (2015). Learning process in public goods games. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications., 430:21-31.
12. Huang, Werner, Traulsen. (2012) The impact of random frequency-dependent mutations on the average fitness. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 12:160.
13. Huang et al. (2012) Emergence of stable polymorphisms driven by evolutionary games between mutants. Nature Communications, 3:919.
14. Huang, Traulsen. (2010). Fixation probabilities of random mutants under frequency dependent selection. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 263(2):262∼ 268
15. Zhang, Liu, Huang et al (2008). Occurrence of Nematode parasites in raptors in Beijing, China. Journal of Raptor Research, 42(3):204∼209.

Supervision

Nathaniel Mon Pere (2020.12 - 2021. 05 Modeling ecDNA dynamics)

Nathaniel will work in our group as a Postdoctoral researcher for half a year on the topic of ecDNA dynamics and then continue the same direction in Dr. Benjamin Werner's group in Barts Cancer Institute, QMUL.

Marius Moeller (2018.05 - Modeling genetic mutations in constant populations)

Marius is a third year PhD students working on the topic of random mutation accumulation in healthy tissue. Before joining QMUL math in 2018 May, Marius has studied applied mathematics in life science in University of Lübeck and worked on how mutation spreads in different graphs. 

Magnus Haughey (2018.11 - Modeling spatial dynamics in cancer evolution)

Magnus' research interests include spatial simulations, stochastic modelling, statistical physics and analysis of large-scale genomic data. He is currently developing computational and mathematical methods to analyse spatially resolved tumour tissue samples, to understand the early-stage development of tumours and how dynamical properties of different tumour cells are reflected in their spatial arrangement. Before joining Queen Mary, Magnus earned his Master’s degree in theoretical physics from The University of Edinburgh where he worked on a stochastic model of chemotherapy response the brain tumours. During his undergraduate studies he also completed particle physics research projects at DESY, Hamburg, and Fermilab, Chicago.

Iftikhar Ahmed (2020.01- Modeling genetic diversity in hierarchical structured human tissues)

Iftikhar is from Pakistan and holds an MPhil degree in Mathematics from Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan. His area of research was Fluid Dynamics and worked on a thesis titled “Some Exact Solutions of the Boundary Layer Equation and Electro-magnetic Body Force”. Studying the infectious disease models has developed his interest in Mathematical Biology. Now he is working on the deterministic model and stochastic simulation of tumor accumulation in hierarchically organized tissue structures.

Elisa Scanu (2020.09 - Modeling ecDNA dynamcis in human cells)

Before joining Queen Mary University, Elisa studied in “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy, where she graduated (both BSc and MSc) in Applied Mathematics with the highest marks, and she spent a semester in Queen Mary University as an Erasmus+ student. She is also working in the Biology Department of “Tuscia” University of Viterbo, Italy, as a contract teacher for a 1st year module in Mathematics.

Elisa’s PhD project is to use stochastic models based on simple mechanistic assumptions to explain observed ecDNA patterns in human cells, including healthy tissues and tumours. The project will be done in cooperation with Barts Cancer Institute at the School of Medicine and Dentistry in Queen Mary University of London.

Christo Morison (2021.09 - Game theory and cancer evolution )