Center for Cancer Systems Biology

Ken Lau, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University. His background is in computational modeling combined with experimentation to study complex biological phenomena. Ken is interested in developing a systems-level understanding of the molecular basis for cell decisions, by utilizing high-dimensional, high-resolution data generated by technologies such as mass cytometry on single cells from fixed tissue, multiplex tissue imaging, and single-cell RNA-seq. To interpret such data, he recently developed p-Creode, an unsupervised algorithm that produces multi-branching graphs and infers a statistically robust hierarchy of cell-state transitions that define developmental trajectories. Ken’s overarching goal is to unravel heterogeneity and plasticity of epithelial and cancer cell populations, and translate such knowledge into therapeutic approaches.