People
Principal Investigator
Haotian (Howie) Wu, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
His research focuses on identifying harmful environmental exposures and understanding the molecular targets that connect these environmental hazards with adverse health effects across the lifespan.
Laboratory Staff
Ivan Pantic
- Laboratory Coordinator
Ivan is an analytical chemist, with a strong background in environmental health research. He holds an MS in analytical chemistry from the University of Kragujevac, Serbia. Ivan's career includes coordinating epidemiological studies at the Harvard School of Public Health (Metals Epidemiology Research Group and Environmental Epigenomics Lab) and at the National Institute of Perinatology in Mexico City. Outside of the lab, he loves to bake and spend time with his daughters.
Gabriela Jackson
- Project Coordinator
Gabriela graduated from Barnard College in 2020 with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Spanish & Latin American Cultures and obtained her MS in Environmental Health Data Science at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in 2024. She has worked on many large-scale wet lab projects, including the isolation of tissue-specific extracellular vesicles (EVs). Additionally, she works on various data analysis projects for the lab. In her free time, she enjoys gluten-free cooking, reading, and rowing.
Fang Wang
- Senior Technician
Fang earned a master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Shanghai University in China. During her graduate studies, she mainly conducted research on the molecular mechanism underlying floury endosperm formation in maize. After completing her degree, Fang worked in the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Currently, she works as a lab technician in the Wu Lab. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and traveling.
Postdoctoral Scientists
Biancamaria Pierri
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Biancamaria obtained a Ph.D. in Translational Medicine of Development and Active Aging from the University of Salerno in Italy, where she also earned a BS and MS in Biology with honors. She conducted research at the National Reference Center for analysis and correlation study of environment, animals and humans (Zooprophylactic Institute of Southern Italy), focusing on human biomonitoring studies with a particular emphasis on DNA methylation analysis. She also contributed to multiple research projects related to COVID-19. As a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Wu Lab, her interest is to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying aging and human diseases related to environmental exposure, by implementing Next Generation Sequencing methods and exploring genetic and epigenetic modifications. She is also pursuing a postgraduate specialization school in Medical Genetics at the University of Naples Federico II (Italy). In her free time, she loves good food, traveling, dancing, and relaxing by the sea.
Wending Li
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Wending Li received his Ph.D. degree in Occupational and Environmental Health from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. He has a broad research interest in environmental, occupational, and cardiometabolic health. His main research area resides in dissecting the role of microRNAs in multiple human health conditions with an environmental origin. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, jogging, and exploring nature.
Students
Zhengfei Bian
- Master's Student
Zhengfei Bian is a Master of Public Health student in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University, pursuing the Health of an Aging Society certificate. With a background in Financial Mathematics, health systems-focused Systems Engineering, she is interested in using quantitative and interdisciplinary approaches to understand how environmental, biological, and built-environment factors shape health and well-being across the aging process. Currently, she works in the Wu Lab on research examining how circulating miRNAs are associated with liver function progression. Outside of work, she enjoys easy hiking and sleeping in.
Yue Zhao
- Master's Student
Yue Zhao graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2025 with a B.S. in Pharmacology and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Her academic interests include epidemiology, biostatistics, and environmental health research, with experience in both laboratory and data analysis settings. In her free time, she enjoys exploring restaurants and taking walks around the city.
Maya Arnott
- Master's Student
Maya Arnott graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2023 with a B.A. in Environmental Biology and is pursuing a Master of Science in Environmental Health Data Science at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, where her research applies machine learning, spatial analysis, and epidemiological methods to environmental health and cancer outcomes. Currently, she works on investigating how environmental chemical exposures influence prostate cancer development. In her free time, Maya enjoys reading, playing tennis, watching movies, and cooking.
Jennifer Song
- Undergraduate Student
Jennifer is a current undergraduate at Columbia College intending to study Neuroscience and Behavior. During her high school years, she became fascinated by the intersection between the human brain and machine intelligence, especially the ways technology can model and interact with human cognition. Her interests include how emerging biotechnologies transform medicine and our understanding of the human body.
Frequent Collaborators
Vrinda Kalia
- Associate Research Scientist
Vrinda Kalia received her Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from Columbia University after having received her MPH in the topic from the same university. She earned her undergraduate degree in pharmacy from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in Karnataka, India. Her dissertation work determined the metabolic consequences of proteotoxicity and exposure to the persistent pesticide DDT in the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. Her research focuses on using an exposomic framework to discover environmental drivers of aging. In her free time, she loves to cook, dance, and learning to animate.
