Current Members
The scientists, trainees, and staff advancing Huan Lab research.
Our team works across analytical mass spectrometry, metabolomics, exposomics, bioinformatics, machine learning, environmental chemistry, and biological applications.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Advanced research training across metabolism and chemical measurement.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Amy Zheng
Amy joined the Huan Lab in May 2025 after earning her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University under Dr. Jamey Young. Her doctoral work applied metabolic flux analysis to microalgae to enhance biofuel production.
At the Huan Lab, she develops approaches to systematically quantify metabolic fluxes by integrating isotope tracing and untargeted metabolomics data.
Graduate Students
Developing methods, software, and applications for modern metabolomics.
Graduate Student
Brian Low
After completing his Bachelor's degree at UBC, Brian returned to the Huan Lab as a graduate student. He hopes to contribute to metabolomics by developing novel bioinformatic tools for biomarker discovery.
Graduate Student
Botao Liu
Botao trained in organic synthesis methodology at Gannan Normal University and completed a Master's degree at Dalian University of Technology focused on organic luminescent materials for OLEDs. He joined the Huan Lab in 2023 for Ph.D. studies focused on plant metabolomics.
MSc Student
Erica Kim
Erica is an MSc student in Chemistry who joined the lab in September 2023 after undergraduate study at the University of Alberta. Her hobby is playing Sudoku.
Graduate Student
David Hidalgo
David earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Havana. He joined the Huan Lab in September 2023 and is interested in using metabolomics to address biotechnology and modern science questions.
PhD Student
Chen Zhao
Chen completed a Bachelor's degree in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University and a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. He joined the lab in 2024 as a Ph.D. student working on deep learning for metabolomics, co-supervised by Dr. Xiaoxiao Li.
PhD Student
Chau Nguyen
After earning a Master's degree in Forensic Chemistry at IUPUI, Chau joined Prof. David Chen's lab at UBC in 2021 as a Ph.D. student co-supervised by Dr. Tao Huan. She studies metabolomics techniques for investigating biological samples.
Graduate Student
Nhi Hoang
Nhi earned her Bachelor's degree in Chemical Biology at UBC and joined the lab in September 2024. She previously worked on lipid nanoparticles during co-op and enjoys reading, climbing, and sports.
MSc Student, Bioinformatics
Kevin Zhang
Kevin completed a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science combined with Statistics at UBC. He joined the lab in September 2025 as an MSc student in Bioinformatics working on statistical methods for metabolomics data.
Visiting PhD Student
Cailum Stienstra
Cailum is a Ph.D. student at the University of Waterloo working as a visiting student with the Huan Lab. His research interests include machine learning, structural annotation, and spectroscopy.
PhD Student
Yuan Xu
Yuan received her Master's degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where she developed a capillary electrophoresis device equipped with a nanoliter quantitative valve. She joined the Huan Lab in 2026 for Ph.D. studies focused on metabolomics.
Undergraduate Students
Early-stage researchers contributing to exposomics, metabolomics, and analytical chemistry.
Undergraduate Researcher
Dorsa Nilforoush
Dorsa is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Biology at UBC and joined the lab in September 2025. Her research focuses on exposomics and environmental compounds that may affect human health.
Honours Student
Kai Constabel
Kai is completing a Combined Honours degree in Chemical Biology. He joined the lab in September 2025 for his honours thesis, developing a non-targeted pipeline for PFAS analysis in human urine.
Work Learn Student
Steven Hu
Steven is completing a BSc in Biology at UBC. He joined the lab as a Work Learn student with a focus on exposomics.
Co-op Student
Kyle Le
Kyle is completing a BSc in Food and Nutritional Sciences at UBC. He joined the lab for a co-op position in January 2026, studying biomarkers in bladder cancer using analytical mass spectrometry and metabolomics.
Undergraduate Researcher
Sharon Lee
Sharon is pursuing a BSc in Chemical Biology and joined the Huan Lab in January 2026 for her CHEM 445 research learning experience. Her research focuses on improving detection throughput and characterization of metabolites.
Lab Manager
Supporting research operations and metabolomics workflows.
Lab Manager
Alyssa Hui
Alyssa graduated from UBC's Combined Honours Chemical Physics program. Her undergraduate thesis developed mass spectrometry-based metabolomics for epigenetics and population health research under Dr. Huan's supervision.
Her interest in LC-MS applications grew from co-op work running HPLC assays on cell culture media. Outside the lab, she enjoys baking, bouldering, and listening to music.