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
Diego Gelsinger, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scientist (co-advised with Prof. Sam Sternberg)
drg2165@cumc.columbia.edu
Diego is a Postdoc 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
Chao Chen, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
cc4865@cumc.columbia.edu
Chao is a Postdoc 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 Research Scientist
jl6482@cumc.columbia.edu
Jeongchan is a Postdoc 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 Research Scientist
ll3778@cumc.columbia.edu
Liyuan is a Postdoc 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
Taehee Han, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
th3138@cumc.columbia.edu
Taehee is a Postdoc in the lab working on enhancing immune cell function and developing biological tools to study cell metabolism. She received her PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular engineering from KAIST. When she’s not playing with cells in the lab, you can find her having a picnic in Central Park.
Favorite actor: Chris Hemsworth
Favorite food: Ma La Xiang Guo
Baiyang Liu, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
bl3120@cumc.columbia.edu
Baiyang is a Postdoc in the lab working on engineering cyanobacteria as space food. He received his PhD in Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology from Rice University. When he’s not in the lab engineering bacteria or writing codes, you can find him playing badminton, guitar, and video games.
Favorite composer: Claude Debussy
Favorite Sci-Fi movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Deirdre Ricaurte, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
dr2955@cumc.columbia.edu
Deirdre is an MD-PhD candidate at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She received her BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and her PhD from Columbia University in our lab. 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
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
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
Teagan Stedman
Graduate Student
ts3556@cumc.columbia.edu
Teagan is a PhD Student in the Nutritional & Metabolic Biology Program. He received his BS in Bioengineering from Harvard College. When he's not in the tissue culture hood, you can find him chemotaxising to the Central Park dirt loop to run.
Favorite reality show: His cats
Favorite band: Periphery
Joseph “Joey” Baer
Research Technician
jbb2169@cumc.columbia.edu
Joey is a Research Technician. He received his B.A. in Neuroscience from Columbia University. When he is not busy working for money at Columbia, he is working for free at Columbia on the board of his undergraduate school’s alumni association.
Favorite band: Steely Dan
Favorite baseball team: San Diego Padres
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
Stone Su
Undergraduate Student
ss6422@columbia.edu
Stone is an undergraduate Biomedical Engineering major at Columbia University. When he's not furiously debugging his code, you can find him pretending to be Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen or obsessively playing video games on his laptop.
Favorite book series: The Stormlight Archive
Favorite recipe: Coca-Cola Chicken
Om Kar
Undergraduate Student
op2268@columbia.edu
Om is an undergraduate Biochemistry and Psychology major at Columbia College. When he’s not MAGICally CASTing genetic payloads into gut microbes, you can find him baking lopsided cakes, reading the same plot in “different” action novels, or being driven insane by GWB traffic.
Favorite music genre: 2010’s radio pop
Favorite cake flavor: Pineapple upside-down
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.