Principal Investigator
Hanrui Zhang, MB PhD

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Hanrui Zhang is a macrophage biologist and cardiovascular physiologist. She completed her PhD training in 2011 at the University of Missouri. Her graduate work centered on the crosstalk between immune cells and blood vessels in diabetes-associated vascular diseases. Her postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania continued to address the mechanisms of cardiometabolic diseases focusing on macrophage lipid metabolism and inflammation using gene targeting in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) with differentiation to macrophages. Her laboratory at Columbia University Irving Medical Center seeks to understand the dynamic role of macrophages in cardiometabolic diseases with the aim of finding novel mechanisms and new treatments. (Email: hz2418@cumc.columbia.edu)
Hanrui is the Vice Chair of the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) — Women’s Leadership Committee, the American Heart Association (AHA).
Education & Training
- MB, 2003, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- MS, 2006, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
- PhD, 2011, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO (AHA Predoctoral Fellow, NIH R90 Trainee)
- Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (AHA Postdoctoral Fellow)
- Associate Research Scientist, 2018, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY (NHLBI K99/R00)
Lab Members
Jianting Shi, MS
Research Specialist
My work focuses on exploring the functionality of myeloid cells and their roles in cardiometabolic diseases using genome-wide CRISPR screen and next-gen sequencing technologies. (Email: js5095@cumc.columbia.edu)
Education & Training
- BE, 2010, Guangdong University of Technology, China
- MS, 2014, UMDNJ (now Rowan University), Stratford, NJ
Fang Li, PhD

Postdoctoral Scientist, AHA Postdoctoral Fellow
I am interested in the functional interrogation of coronary artery disease-associated loci identified by human genome-wide association studies. My current work focuses on the role of lysosomal acid lipase in atherosclerosis. (Email: fl2532@cumc.columbia.edu)
Education & Training
- BSc, 2012, Northwest A&F University, China
- PhD, 2018, Univerity of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Xun Wu, PhD

Postdoctoral Scientist, Berrie Diabetes Scholar
Email: xw2698@cumc.columbia.edu
Education & Training
- BSc, 2011, Anhui Science and technology university, China
- MSc, 2014, Anhui University, China
- PhD, 2019, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Raneem Hamad
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Columbia College 2021
Jeana Chun
Undergraduate Research Assistant, SURF Scholar, Columbia College 2022
Annie Rozenblyum
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Barnard College 2022
Yujiao Meng
Visiting PhD Student, CSC Awardee, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
Sophie Shan
Data Science Institute Scholar, BS in Statistics, CUSP Scholar, Columbia College 2022
Ziyi Wang
MS student in Human Nutrition (2019-2020), Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia University.
Shamma Ali
MS student in Human Nutrition (2020-2021), Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia University.
Philip Ha
High School Student, Townsend Harris 2022
Lab Alumni
Undergraduate Researchers
Eileen Moudou, Columbia College 2020 (01/2019-05/2019)
Yolanda Jean-Baptiste, BS, Fellow of the NERA Program (06/2019-07/2019)
Columbia Data Science Institute (DSI) Scholars
Joey Zihui Gu, MS in Data Science, Columbia University (09/2018-12/2018)
Jiayi Shen, MS in Biostatistics, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (03/2019-07/2019)
Jianyou Liu, MS in Biostatistics, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (03/2019-07/2019)
Joy Hsu, MS in Biostatistics, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (11/2019-05/2020)