Principal Investigator

Hanrui Zhang, MB PhD

Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences

Email: hz2418@cumc.columbia.edu

Dr. Hanrui Zhang is a macrophage biologist. 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.

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

Email: js5095@cumc.columbia.edu
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.

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

Email: fl2532@cumc.columbia.edu

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9180-3615

Follow @FangLi

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.

Education & Training

BS, 2012, Northwest A&F University, China
PhD, 2018, Univerity of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Xun Wu, PhD

Postdoctoral Scientist, AHA Postdoctoral Fellow

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0742-7459

Email: xw2698@cumc.columbia.edu

Education & Training

BS, 2011, Anhui Science and technology university, China
MS, 2014, Anhui University, China
PhD, 2019, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Ziyi Wang, MS

Research Specialist

Education & Training

BS in Business Management and Biology, 2018, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
MS in Human Nutrition, 2021, Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia University, New York City, NY

Rebecca Moore

MS student in Human Nutrition (2020-2021), Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia University.

Nicole Lin

Data Science Institute Scholar, Columbia College 2024.

Jeana Chun

Undergraduate Research Assistant, SURF Scholar, Columbia College 2022

Annie Rozenblyum

Undergraduate Research Assistant, Barnard College 2022

Philip Ha

High School Student, Townsend Harris 2022

Lab Alumni

MS Student

Ziyi Wang, MS in Human Nutrition, Columbia University (09/2019-02/2021) Shamma Ali, MS in Human Nutrition, Columbia University (09/2020-09/2021)

Undergraduate Researchers

Eden Tilahun Teferi, Columbia College 2021 (09/2018-01/2019)
Raneem Hamad, Columbia College 2021 (09/2018-03/2020)
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 Univ. Mailman School of Public Health (03/2019-07/2019)
Jianyou Liu, MS in Biostatistics, Columbia Univ. Mailman School of Public Health (03/2019-07/2019)
Joy Hsu, MS in Biostatistics, Columbia Univ. Mailman School of Public Health (11/2019-05/2020) Neha Pusarla, MS in Data Science, Columbia Univ. (03/2021-06/2021)
Sophie Shan, BS in Statistics, CUSP Scholar, Columbia College 2022 (11/2019-09/2021)

Visting Scientists

Yujiao Meng, Visiting PhD Student, Beijing Univ. of Chinese Medicine (12/2019-03/2021).