Dr. Na Cai
Assistant Professor in Computational Medical Genomics in D-BSSE in ETH Zurich and the Basel Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH)
Twitter: @caina89, Email: na.cai@bsse.ethz.ch
ORCID: 0000-0001-7496-2075
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I am a quantitative geneticist studying the genetic basis of psychiatric disorders (specifically Major Depressive Disorder, MDD). I am an active member of the ExDEP Consortium whose goal is to leverage biobanks and EHRs around the world to investigate the genetic architecture and heterogeneity of MDD. I am also part of other international efforts such as the MDD and Cross-Disorder Working Groups of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC-MDD, PGC-CDG), as well as the diagnostic committee for the Schizophrenia Working Group (PGC-SCZ).
I am an active member of the research community in human, quantitative and computational genetics. I was the Vice-Chair and Chair of the Gordon Research Conference in Quantitative Genetics and Genomics in 2023 and 2025 respectively, co-Chair of the RECOMB-Genetics Satellite meetings in 2025 and 2026, and I am on the programme committee of the World Congress for Psychiatric Genetics since 2023.
I teach a Master's Course in Quantitative Genetics and Genomics for the Msc in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (CBB) in D-BSSE, ETH Zurich.
Current members
Dr. Yazheng Di
Postdoc, ETH Zurich
PhD, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Research direction
Genetics of depression and identification of voice features that predict depressive states
Anastasiya Vladimirova
PhD student, ETH Zurich
Msc in Molecular Biotechnology, Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, Germany
Research direction:
Identification of gene expression programs in Perturbseq data and their relationships with complex diseases
Patrick Zweifel
Msc Biotechnology, ETH Zurich
Master's Thesis student
Bsc Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zürich
Research direction:
Investigating the utility of genomic structure equation modelling in identification of disease mechanisms and confounders
Patrick Styll
Msc Computer Science, ETH Zurich
Student Researcher
BSc in Software & Information Engineering
BHons in AI in Medicine,
Technical University of Vienna
Research direction:
Personalized gene expression prediction and modeling
Ayshan Aliyeva
PhD Student, Helmholtz Munich
Munich Data Science Graduate School (MUDS)
(Primary supervisor: Dr Paolo Casale, Helmholtz Munich)
Project:
Mito-nuclear cross talk of gene regulatory effects in brain tissue at bulk and single cell levels
Antonio Nappi
PhD student, Helmholtz Munich
Munich Data Science Graduate School (MUDS)
(Primary supervisor: Dr Paolo Casale, Helmholtz Munich)
Project:
Interaction between rare variant burden and common variant liabilities in complex traits
Former members
Dr. Simon Chang
Former Postdoc
(now Junior Professor at University of Regensburg)
PhD Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Germany
Research direction
Molecular neurobiology of stress
Dr. Federica Fermani
Former Postdoc
(now Postdoc at University of Regensburg)
PhD Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), IMPRS-LS, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Germany
(Magna cum laude)
Research direction
Molecular neurobiology of stress
Dr. Lianyun Huang
Former PhD Student
(now Postdoc in Aarhus University)
Dr. rer. nat Technische Universität München (TUM), Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Germany
Research direction:
Identifying genetically driven subtypes of MDD
Xenofon Giannoulis
Former PhD Student
(Now postdoc in Helmholtz Munich)
Dr. rer. nat Technische Universität München (TUM), Munich Data Science Graduate School (MUDS), Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Germany
Research direction
Tissue-specific mtDNA regulation of gene expression
Simon Wengert
Former PhD Student
(Now postdoc in University of Copenhagen)
Dr. rer. nat Technische Universität München (TUM), Munich Data Science Graduate School (MUDS), Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Germany
Research direction:
mtDNA heteroplasmy and RNA modifications in ageing and disease
Jolien Rietkerk
Former PhD Student
(Now postdoc in University Medical Centre Groningen)
Dr. rer. nat Technische Universität München (TUM), Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Germany
Research direction:
Identifying interacting etiological pathways that contribute to psychiatric disorders and comorbidity
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