Staff Directory

_{Songtao earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, where he worked with Dr. Albert Courey studying transcription regulation during Drosophila embryo development. Afterward, he conducted postodoctoral work with Dr. Shiv Grewal, first at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories and then at the National Cancer Institute, where he studied the mechanisms of gene silencing in fission yeast.}

_{Currently, Songtao is a Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, and a member of the Cancer Genomics and Epigenomics Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His lab investigates the basic mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance and how their misregulation contributes to human diseases.}

_{Songtao currently teaches The Central Dogma: Mechanisms and Regulations (BIOL GR6007), Seminar in Epigenetics (BIOL GU4035), and Biotechnology (GU4034) and has also taught Molecular Biology (BIOL GU4512) from 2008 to 2020.}

_{Along with Dr. Lars Dietrich, Songtao is a co-Director of Graduate studies, overseeing the Biological Sciences Ph.D. program.}

B.S. University of California

Junyao Zang is a graduate student at Columbia University. Originally from China, Junyao later lived in California and now splits time between New York and Los Angeles. Before graduate school, Junyao studied wine science as an undergraduate—a field that not only sharpened scientific curiosity but also taught a great appreciation for how biology connects to culture (and to a good glass of wine).

In the lab, Junyao studies epigenetics, with a focus on heterochromatin formation and inheritance in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Junyao is fascinated by how chromatin-based mechanisms regulate gene expression and by the possibility that these insights could one day inspire new advances in biotechnology and medicine.

Outside of research, Junyao keeps busy with plenty of hobbies. Having played guitar for over a decade across classical, acoustic, and electric styles, Junyao now performs in a band in New York City. When not making music, you might find Junyao practicing archery, planning the next trip, or hunting down the best food in town.