Zelin Zang

Zelin Zang

Research Assistant Professor(RAP) at Hong Kong Institute of Innovation and Westlake University. Focusing on Fundamental AI, Foundation Models, AI for Science, and Deep Manifold Learning.

Hi, I am Zelin Zang 臧泽林

Fundamental AI, Foundation Models & AI for Science

19 CCF/CAAI-A 6 first-author, 3 co-first, 4 corr. author, 7 other author
11 CCF-B 5 first-author, 1 co-first, 2 corr. author, 3 other author
19 SCI Q1 6 first-author, 5 co-first, 0 corr. author, 8 other author
1293 Total Citations from Google Scholar

I am currently a Research Assistant Professor(RAP) at Hong Kong Institute of Innovation and Westlake University, working with Prof. Stan Z. Li (IEEE Fellow), Prof. Zhen Lei, and Prof. Jiebo Luo.

My core research focuses on Fundamental AI and Foundation Models. I am particularly interested in representation learning, deep manifold learning, geometric deep learning, multimodal foundation models, and trustworthy AI agents, aiming to build interpretable, scalable, and robust AI systems.

I also work on interdisciplinary applications of AI, especially in AI for Science, life sciences, and medicine. My recent work explores how foundation models and agentic AI can support single-cell analysis, molecular modeling, biomedical reasoning, and clinical decision support.

Previously, I obtained my Ph.D. from Zhejiang University (jointly trained with Westlake University), supervised by Prof. Stan Z. Li (IEEE Fellow). I was also a CSC Visiting Scholar at the National University of Singapore (NUS), advised by Prof. Yang You.

Openings

I am actively recruiting Interns and PhD Students (Jointly trained with Institute of Automation-CAS, Zhejiang University, or Westlake University).

We are looking for self-motivated students interested in:

  • Fundamental AI — Foundation Models, Representation Learning
  • AI for Life Science — Single-cell, Molecular Biology
  • Medical AI & AI Agents
  • AI + X — Interdisciplinary Research

If you are interested, please send your CV to zangzelin@gmail.com.

Research Interests

Fundamental AI Representation learning, deep manifold learning, geometric deep learning, trustworthy AI
Foundation Models & Agents Multimodal foundation models, LLM agents, scalable and interpretable AI systems
AI for Science & Medicine Single-cell foundation models, molecular biology, medical reasoning, phylogenetic inference

* denotes equal contribution; † denotes corresponding author.

Selected Publications

Full list

AI / Manifold Learning

AI for Life Science & Medicine

News

Show 16 more news
  • [May 2026] Recognized as an ICML 2026 Gold Reviewer, placing among the top reviewers for this year’s conference, with complimentary registration awarded.
  • [May 2026] Our paper “HDTree: Generative Modeling of Cellular Hierarchies for Robust Lineage Inference” accepted by International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2026 (CCF-A, Premier AI Conference).
  • [Mar 2026] Our paper “Adaptive Prototype-guided Personalized Propagation for Heterophilic Graphs with Missing Data” accepted by IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (TNNLS) (SCI Q1, Top AI/ML Journal).
  • [Feb 2026] Our paper “ReGenHOI: Unifying Reconstruction and Generation for 3D Human–Object Interaction Understanding” accepted by IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2026 (CCF-A, Premier AI Conference).
  • [Feb 2026] Our paper “UniSurg: A Video-Native Foundation Model for Universal Understanding of Surgical Videos” posted on arXiv.
  • [Jan 2026] Two papers (CDBridge & Doloris) accepted by International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2026 (CCF-A, Premier AI Conference).
  • [Jan 2026] Our paper “A Medical Multimodal Diagnostic Framework Integrating Vision-Language Models and Logic Tree Reasoning” has been accepted by IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) 2026 (CCF-B, Top Signal Processing Conf).
  • [Jan 2026] Our paper “Multi-center multi-omics integration predicts individualized prognosis in medullary thyroid carcinoma” has been accepted by Nature Communications (SCI Q1, IF=15.7, Top Multidisciplinary Journal).
  • [Jan 2026] Our paper “MDTree” (Phylogenetic Inference) has been accepted by Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR) (SCI, Top ML Journal).
  • [Dec 2025] Our survey “The Dawn of Agentic EDA: A Survey of Autonomous Digital Chip Design” posted on arXiv.
  • [Nov 2025] Three papers (MedLA, Cell-Aware & Departures) accepted to AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2026 (CCF-A, Premier AI Conference). MedLA & Cell-Aware selected for Oral Presentation (Top ~5%).
  • [Sep 2025] “CellScout” accepted by IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) (CCF-A, SCI Q1, Top Visualization Journal).
  • [Sep 2025] One paper on 3D Hand-Instrument Interaction accepted by Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) 2025 (Top Medical AI Conf, CCF-B).
  • [Mar 2025] One paper on Time Series Fault Detection accepted by IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (TNNLS) (CCF-B, SCI Q1, IF=10.4).
  • [Feb 2025] Three Papers (MuST, FGeneBERT, PoincaréDMT) accepted by Briefings in Bioinformatics (BIB) (CCF-B, SCI Q1, Top Bioinformatics Journal).
  • [Jan 2025] “DaCapo” accepted by IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2025 (CCF-A, Premier AI Conference).

For a full list of publications, please refer to my Publications page.