People
Harris Wang (Principal Investigator)
Interim Chair of the Department of Systems Biology
Associate Professor in Systems Biology (with tenure)
Office: Room 203BB, Mary Lasker Biomedical Research Building
Email: hw2429@columbia.edu
Office: 1-212-305-1697
CV | PubMed | Google Scholar | Twitter
Harris Wang is the Interim Chair of the Department of Systems Biology and an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He holds degrees from MIT (double B.S. in Physics & Math) and Harvard (Ph.D. in Biophysics & Medical Engineering Medical Physics). Dr. Wang's numerous accolades include PECASE, Vilcek Prize, Blavatnik National Awards, Schaefer Scholar, BWF PATH Investigator, ONR Young Investigator, Sloan Research Fellowship, NSF CAREER, NIH Early Independence Award, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science.
Kristin Beiswenger
Executive Director, Scientific Operations
kmb2237@cumc.columbia.edu
Kristin serves as the Scientific Program Director of DARPA PREPARE and DARPA Arcadia and works on the technology transition and commercialization of various lab inventions. She received her MS in Chemistry from Penn State and her MHA from Columbia University. When she’s not writing technical or financial reports, you can find her cooking for a dinner party, rock climbing, or at a hot yoga class.
Favorite meal: Roberto soup
Favorite yoga pose: Dead bug
Tiffany Seto, PhD
Staff Scientist
ts2992@cumc.columbia.edu
Tiffany is a Staff Scientist and Lab Manager for the lab. She received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from New York University. When she’s not managing over a million dollars in lab supplies spending per year, you can find her at home watching Bluey with her two daughters, listening to "Let It Go" on repeat, all while pretending to be a playground structure on which they can climb and jump.
Favorite TV shows: Star Wars: The Clone Wars & Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Favorite book: Tao Te Ching
Nickle Fisher
Administrative Assistant
nf2575@cumc.columbia.edu
Nickle is the Administrative Assistant for the lab. She was previously an Administrative Assistant for Chanel. When she’s not wrangling Harris' crazy calendar, you can find her spending time with her kids and listening to music.
Favorite book: The Power of Now
Favorite band: Coldplay
Liyuan Liu, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
ll3190@cumc.columbia.edu
Liyuan is an Associate Research Scientist in the lab focusing on the ‘Towards Life with a Reduced Protein Alphabet’ project. He received his PhD in Genetics from the Kunming Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is interested in developing new bioengineering strategies. When he’s not in the lab working on recombineering and variant fitness measurements, you can find him at home working on his kid’s homework!
Favorite holiday: Spring Festival
Favorite vacation: Gold Coast, Australia
Leonie Brockmann, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
lb3166@cumc.columbia.edu
Leonie is an Associate Research Scientist in the lab interested in the interactions of microbiota-associated metabolites with the host and its immune system. She received her PhD in Immunology from the University Hamburg, Germany. When she is not in the mouse room setting up experiments or collecting poop, Leonie can be found running along the Hudson river training for the next race.
Favorite TV show: Star Trek – The Next Generation
Favorite holiday: Christmas (in Germany, obviously)
Yuanyuan Huang, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
yh3727@cumc.columbia.edu
Yuanyuan is an Associate Research Scientist in the lab focusing on engineering functional living fungal-bacterial materials. She received her PhD in fermentation engineering from South China University of Technology. When she’s not engineering living cells, you can find her playing badminton or practicing yoga.
Favorite drink: Coffee
Favorite sport: Badminton
Guillaume Urtecho, PhD
HHMI Hanna Gray Postdoctoral Fellow
gu2144@cumc.columbia.edu
Guillaume is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab working on using fecal transplantation models to study how microbes colonize diverse ecosystems. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology from UCLA. When he’s not quietly smoldering at his R scripts, you can find him dunking on his coworkers in Morningside Park.
Favorite holiday: Christmas
Favorite city to visit: San Diego
Diego Gelsinger, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (co-advised with Prof. Sam Sternberg)
drg2165@cumc.columbia.edu
Diego is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab jointly with the Sternberg lab working on CRISPR and engineering microbial communities. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from Johns Hopkins University. When he’s not running between both labs down 168th street, you can find him biking through the boroughs of NYC.
Favorite music genre: 1990s rap
Favorite street food: Tacos
Yiming Huang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
yh2989@cumc.columbia.edu
Yiming is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab working on new technology studying gut microbes and their interaction with the host. He received his PhD from Columbia University in our lab. When he’s not loading sequencing runs in the lab, you can find him spending hours optimizing the color theme and font size of his figures for fun.
Favorite computer game: Dota2
Favorite sport: Badminton
Chao Chen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
cc4865@cumc.columbia.edu
Chao is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab working on biological tools to study cell physiology and engineer cells with new functions. He received his PhD from Peking University in Chemical Biology. When he’s not playing with cells in the lab, you can find him trying to learn cooking in his kitchen.
Favorite computer game: FIFA
Favorite singer: Jay Chou
Jeongchan Lee, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
jl6482@cumc.columbia.edu
Jeongchan is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab working on soil microbiome and engineering gut microbes. He received his PhD in Chemical & Biological Engineering from Seoul National University. When he’s not culturing bacteria in the lab, you can find him running around the park in Fort Lee.
Favorite sports: Jogging and soccer
Favorite drink: Coffee
Liyuan Lin, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
ll3778@cumc.columbia.edu
Liyuan is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab working on spatial metagenomics of the gut microbiome. She received her PhD in Microbiology and Chemical Biology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. When she’s not experimenting with bacteria and mice, you can find her exploring the online world.
Favorite restaurant: Szechuan Garden
Favorite star: Zi Yang
Miles Richardson, PhD
Staff Scientist
mpr2148@cumc.columbia.edu
Miles is a Staff Scientist in the lab working on spatial metagenomics. He received his PhD at Columbia in the Wang lab, and his BS in Biology and BA in Music from the University of Chicago. When he’s not in the lab making way too many plots in R, you can find him on a Citi Bike somewhere in Queens.
Favorite restaurant: Anywhere a grandma is making the food
Favorite pastime: Deadlifting less than he wants to be
Deirdre Ricaurte
Graduate Student
dr2955@cumc.columbia.edu
Deirdre is an MD-PhD Student at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She received her BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. When she’s not experimenting with drugs and poop, you can find her at home watching TV with her cat, Luna.
Favorite podcast: Who? Weekly
Favorite TV show: Mare of Easttown
Tyler Perdue
Graduate Student
tdp2124@columbia.edu
Tyler is a PhD Student in the Biological Sciences Program. He received his BS in Biological Sciences from University of California Santa Barbara. When he’s not culturing cells, you can find him looking for new places to go around NYC.
Favorite restaurant: Bar 314
Favorite board game: 7 Wonders
Chrystal Mavros
Graduate Student
cfm2136@cumc.columbia.edu
Chrystal is a PhD Student in the Genetics & Development Program. She received her BS in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University. When she’s not waiting for mice poop, you can find her replicating recipes from The Great British Baking Show or co-producing her weekly comedy show, Aggressively Chill.
Favorite podcast: Without a Country
Favorite cocktail: Espresso martini
Yiwei Sun
Graduate Student
ys3235@cumc.columbia.edu
Yiwei is a PhD Student in the Bioinformatics Program. She received her BS in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics from UCLA. When she’s not analyzing her sequencing data, you can find her adventuring with her cats.
Favorite boba place: KOI
Favorite city to visit: Amsterdam
Logan Schwanz
Graduate Student
lts2143@columbia.edu
Logan is a PhD Student in the Pathobiology Program. He received BA degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) from the University of Colorado at Boulder. When he’s not testing his new genetic engineering constructs, you can find him enjoying a slice of his favorite NYC pizza or playing the sax.
Favorite slice in the Heights: Koronet on 172
Favorite jazz standard: Take the A Train
Charlotte Rochereau
Graduate Student (jointly advised w/ Mohammed AlQuraishi)
cr3007@columbia.edu
Charlotte is a PhD Student in the Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies Program. She received her MS in Bioengineering and Systems Biology from AgroParisTech and her MA in Management from HEC Paris. When she’s not training models, you can find on her quest for the best French food suppliers in NYC.
Favorite protein: DYKDDDDVDMGQPGNGSAFLLAPNGSHAPDH…
Favorite jazz club: Smalls
Harry Lee
Graduate Student (jointly advised w/ Mohammed AlQuraishi)
hhl2114@cumc.columbia.edu
Harry is a PhD Student in the Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies Program. He received his BS and MS in Computer Science from Columbia University. When he’s not wrangling dataframes on his Jupyter notebook, you’ll likely find him catching a live music set around the city.
Favorite ramen spot in NYC: Menkoi Sato
Favorite podcast: Lex Fridman Podcast
Marley Giddins
Graduate Student (advised by Alex Chavez)
mg3744@cumc.columbia.edu
Marley is a PhD Student in the Microbiology & Immunology Program. She received her BA in Biology from Amherst College. When she’s not in the lab engineering new-and-improved CRISPR transcriptional modulators, you can find her shooting hoops on the basketball court, whipping up a charcuterie board, or binge-watching trash TV shows.
Yiming Qu
Graduate Student
yq2355@cumc.columbia.edu
Yiming is a PhD Student in the Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies Program. He received his BS in Biological Science from Tsinghua University. When he is not coding or fiddling clumsily with lab equipment, you might find him browsing Twitter aimlessly or playing badminton aggressively.
Favorite music genre: Chinoiserie
Favorite movie: The Hobbit
Grace Bukowski-Thall
Research Technician
gb2824@cumc.columbia.edu
Grace is a Research Technician in the lab. She received her BA in Biology from Bowdoin College. When she’s not culturing gut bacteria, you can find her searching for the perfect item on Facebook Marketplace.
Favorite podcast: Maintenance Phase
Favorite food: Parmesan
Jasmine Wang
Research Technician
jyw2117@barnard.edu
Jasmine is an undergraduate Biochemistry major at Barnard College. When she’s not struggling to reach lab equipment on high shelves, you can find her people watching or sketching over an overpriced latte.
Favorite city to visit: Paris
Favorite movie: Chungking Express
Amanda Simkhovich
Rotation Student
acs2358@cumc.columbia.edu
Martin Liu
Rotation Student
cl3890@cumc.columbia.edu
Teagan Stedman
Rotation Student
ts3556@cumc.columbia.edu
Coco Huang
Undergraduate Student
kh3137@columbia.edu
Coco is an undergraduate Biochemistry major at Columbia College. When she’s not growing gut microbiomes in the anaerobic chamber, you can find her running on the squash court or making sea urchin sushi with friends.
Favorite holiday: Mid-Autumn Festival
Favorite city to visit: Tokyo
Daniel Shneider
Undergraduate Student
dws2137@columbia.edu
Daniel is an undergraduate Biology and Art History major at Columbia College. When he’s not wrangling mice, you can find him gallery hopping downtown or binging a Scandinavian mystery show.
Favorite takeout order: General Tso’s Chicken and an eggroll
Favorite museum: MoMA
Zetian (David) Zhang
Undergraduate Student
zz3050@columbia.edu
David is an undergraduate Biomedical Engineering major at Columbia College.
Stone Su
Undergraduate Student
ss6422@columbia.edu
Stone is an undergraduate Biomedical Engineering major at Columbia College.
Om Pargaonkar
Undergraduate Student
op2268@columbia.edu
Om is an undergraduate Biochemistry and Psychology major at Columbia College.
Theodore Wang
Junior Volunteer
Theo is an understudy in the lab. His aspirations include mastering debate, mathematics, cello, and airbending.
Elizabeth Wang
Junior Volunteer
Elizabeth is an understudy in the lab. Her aspirations include making the list of Forbes 5 under 5.
GeeMo and friends
Lab mascots
Geemo and his friends are our resident axolotls. They regularly enjoy biting and swallow their tankmates and showing off their regenerative superpowers.