CURRENT MEMBERS
Jiangjiang (Chris) Zhu, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Provost’s Scarlet and Gray Associate Professor, Human Nutrition Program in the Department of Human Sciences
Member, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center
Training and Education Background:
Senior Fellow, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (Mentor: Professor Dan Raftery)
Ph.D., University of Vermont, Burlington, VT (Advisor: Professor Jane Hill)
Chris obtained his undergraduate and master degree from Donghua University in Shanghai, China. He studied with Professor Jane Hill (currently at UBC) at the University of Vermont for his Ph.D., which mainly focused on novel mass spectrometry method development for rapid bacteria detection and identification. Chris then took a senior fellow position at the Northwest Metabolomics Research Center, the University of Washington with Professor Dan Raftery, worked on the mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling for cancer biomarker discovery and disease diagnosis/monitoring. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Miami University between 2015 and 2018. Chris moved his lab to the Human Nutrition Program in the Department of Human Sciences and The Comprehensive Cancer Center since January 2019. He is also a faculty member in the Discovery Theme Food For Health Initiative.
Li Chen, Senior Research Associate
2020.01 – 2023.09, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
2019.09-2020.01, Postdoc fellow in studying of the roles of AMPK in regulating mitochondrial functions, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
2017.10-2018.10, joint Ph.D. program in analysis of volatile metabolites of microbial origin, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
2013.09-2019.06, Ph.D. program in ecotoxicological evaluation of pesticides on lizards (Eremias argus), China agricultural university, Beijing, China.
2009.07-2013.09, Bachelor of agriculture in seed science and technology, Shandong agricultural university, Taian, China.
Shiqi Zhang, Graduate student
My name is Shiqi Zhang, a first-year student in the interdisciplinary Program in Nutrition at State University. I was major in human nutrition, dietetics at OSU and decided to become a researcher. I am from Zhejiang Province, China. My family history of type 2 diabetes and enthusiasm about food have driven my intention to study human nutrition. I have been involved in Dr. Zhu’s metabolomics-based lab since March 2019. Now, I primarily study how nutrition has an effect on gut microbiota using a model that mimics the human colon environment. And I hope to become a researcher in the future.
Andrew Gold, Graduate student
My name is Andrew Gold and I grew up close to The Ohio State University in New Albany, OH. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the College of Wooster in 2019, where I also ran track and cross country. I then went on to get my MS degree in Nutrition at Case Western Reserve University, where I decided I would like to combine all I’d studied thus far and get my PhD working in the area of molecular nutrition. I was drawn to Dr. Zhu’s lab due to my strong interest in profiling human metabolism and how nutrition can impact the regulation of these metabolites. In my free time I enjoy running, lifting weights and playing with my dog.
Huan Zhang, Postdoc Research Associate
Huan came from Tongren, a city in southwest China, and obtained her bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. She was working on the Synthesis of the Fluorescent Probe for Cancer Cells in Dr. Lei Cui’s lab at USST. In 2017, Huan joined Dr. Michael Crowder’s lab at Miami University for Ph.D. studies and worked on the Spectroscopic Characterization of Metallo-β-lactamase IMP-1 and Bourbon Whiskeys. In September 2022, Huan joined Dr. Zhu’s research lab as a postdoctoral scholar working on hair metabolomics, nutritional metabolomics and other interesting projects.
Chao Guo, Graduate Student
I am Chao Guo, from Hunan in China. I got a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from Changsha University of Science and Technology in 2014 and recevied a master’s degree in metabolism engineering from Zhejiang University of Technology in June 2022. I previously worked on enantioseparation and enantiodegradation of chiral pesticides, and on the effects of chiral pesticides on fermentation vegetables using microbiome and metabolomics technologies. In August 2022, I joined Zhu’s lab as a gradute student working on metabolomics studies of environmental health issues.
Natalie Noble, Graduate Student
My name is Natalie Noble and I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio (so I’ll always be a major fan of Cleveland
baseball and basketball)! I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion, Nutrition and Exercise
Science at Ohio State University in 2023, and I am currently pursuing a masters degree in Human
Nutrition at OSU. As I work towards my degree, I am excited to research topics related to my desired
professional field of sports nutrition. My commitment to discovering more about the interrelationship
between the gut microbiome and sport performance attracted me to Dr. Zhu’s lab. I am especially
interested in how the use of sport supplements can impact gut microbiota and microbial metabolites.
When I am not busy studying or researching, you’ll most likely find me powerlifting or playing golf.
Xinru Pang, Gradute Fellow
My name is Xinru Pang and I am a first-year student in the Interdisplincary Program in Nutrition at the Ohio State University. I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences with a minor in Psychology from Queen’s University (Canada) and a master’s degrees in Food Sciences from the University of British Columbia. I joined Dr. Zhu’s research group in August 2023, and I am interested in investigating how mass spectrometry can be used for early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of cancer, and how precision nutrition can be used as preventative and adjuvant measures.
Shuaixin Gao, Graudate Student
I come from Henan, China. I got my master’s degree from Changzhou University. With five years of experience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, I primarily focused on developing and applying novel methods in proteomics. Subsequently, I spent four years at Peking University, where my research concentrated on multi-omics approaches in precision medicine. As a co-author, I have published over 20 articles in journals such as Nature, Cell, PNAS, and Nature Communications. My collaborative contribution to “Multiple Signaling Roles of CD3ε and Its Application in CAR-T Cell Therapy” in Cell was acknowledged as one of the “Top 10 Advances in Life Sciences in China” in 2020. Additionally, the article “Immune Suppression in the Early Stage of COVID-19 Disease” published in Nature Communications was selected as one of the journal’s “Top 50 SARS-CoV-2 Articles of the Year.” Furthermore, during this period, I obtained three patents. Currently, my research endeavors center around leveraging multi-omics methodologies to unravel the complex interplay between diet and the physiological status of obese individuals, with a particular emphasis on the modulation of gut microbiota. My work holds promise for advancing our understanding of the intricate connections between diet, health, and disease, paving the way for targeted interventions to combat obesity and related metabolic disorders.
Hyein Jung, Undergraduate Researcher
My name is Hyein Jung, and I grew up in Korea. As an undergraduate student in the Ohio State University, I am pursuing my bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in pharmaceutical science. I have decided to join Dr. Zhu’s lab to gain valuable experience and enhance my knowledge. I have been working on analyzing the impact of different drugs on different cell lines of lung cancer and in vivo models, as well as to probe cell metabolism in order to develop a non-invasive detection method.
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Lab Almuni
Postdoc Research Associates:
Dr. Anthony Sallese
Dr. Jingyi Cao
Dr. Xiaowei Sun, FFH Postdoc Fellow (2019)
Dr. Jisun Lee
Graduate Trainees:
Dr. Rui Xu, PhD 2024, (currently postdoc scholar at Stanford University)
Dr. Fouad Choueiry, PhD 2024
Fanyi Zhong (M.S. 2018)
Haorong Li (M.S. 2018)
Kundi Yang
Flora Xu
Monica Rahman
Rasal Khan
Ruichao Xie
Ming Hu
Undergraduate Research Associates:
OSU:
Xuyu Liu (currently in PhD program at OSU Microbiology)
Amy Verway-Cohen
Ali Alkhalifa
Jacob Kenneally
Ava Maffei
Kelly Meyrath
Clark Starr
Miami U:
Ryan Parnell
Pratiti Ghosh-Dastidar
Taylor Malchow
Taylor Reid
Savanah Reeves
Josh Rutowski
Katie Schelli
Nicholas Hoyt
Sarah Aldrich
Divya Das
Benita Tseng
Emma Whitney
Vicky Borland
Meng Lu
Sophia Lee (NSF REU student)
Brenda Ho (NSF REU student)
Stephanie Maldonado Rivera (NSF REU student)
High School Student:
Kenny Wang