Principal Investigator
Hanrui Zhang, MB PhD
Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences
Email: hz2418@cumc.columbia.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8655-938X
LinkedIn
Github
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 Chair of the Women’s Leadership Committee, the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) council of the American Heart Association (AHA). She is also a member of the ATVB Leadership Committee, and the ATVB Investigator-in-Training Award Committee. She is currently serving as the Technical Review Editor for the ATVB Journal.
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
Fang Li, PhD
Postdoctoral Scientist, AHA Postdoctoral Fellow, CDA Awardee
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
Education & Training
- BS, 2011, Anhui Science and Technology University, China
- MS, 2014, Anhui University, China
- PhD, 2019, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Mazal Zebak, BA
Research Specialist
Education & Training
- BA in Chemistry, 2023, Harvard University
Rehet Chugh
MS student in Human Nutrition, Columbia University, New York City, NY.
Education & Training
- BS in Health Sciences, 2021, California Northstate University of Health Sciences
Tyler Shern
Undergraduate Research Assitant, SRF (Science Research Fellow) and SURF Scholar, Columbia University 2025
Philip Ha
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College 2026
Lab Alumni
Research Specialist
Jianting Shi, MS, Research Specialist (07/2018-08/2023)
MS Student
Ziyi Wang, MS in Human Nutrition, Columbia University (09/2019-02/2021), Research Specialist (PT, 03/2021-07/2022)
Shamma Ali, MS in Human Nutrition, Columbia University (09/2020-09/2021)
Rebecca Moore, MS in Human Nutrition Columbia University (09/2020-09/2022), Research Specialist (Casual, 09/2022-12/2022)
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)
Jeana Chun, BS, SURF Scholar, Columbia College 2022 (01/2019-05/2022)
Annie Rozenblyum, BS, Barnard College 2022 (01/2019-05/2022)
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)
High School Students
Philip Ha, Townsend Harris 2022 (03/2020-08/2022) –> Undergraduate Research Assistant in the lab