Turn big questions in nutrition and microbiome science into real-world impact.

The Zhang Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is recruiting highly motivated PhD students who are passionate about improving liver and metabolic health through Food Is Medicine, microbiome science, multi-omics, and translational epidemiology.

Our research asks a simple but important question:

How can food, the microbiome, and metabolism be used to prevent and treat chronic liver disease?

Students in our lab will work at the intersection of nutrition, clinical research, microbiome science, metabolomics, proteomics, epidemiology, biostatistics, and real-world data. Current projects include NIH-funded dietary intervention studies, including our recently awarded NIDDK R01 evaluating isocaloric navy-bean substitution in adults with MASLD, as well as additional clinical and industry-sponsored research in MASLD/MASH.

Why join the Zhang Lab?

You will have opportunities to:

• Work directly on NIH-funded clinical and translational research
• Analyze microbiome, metabolomics, proteomics, imaging, and longitudinal clinical data
• Develop expertise in causal inference, biostatistics, and real-world data analysis
• Lead abstracts, manuscripts, and conference presentations
• Receive personalized mentorship and career development
• Collaborate with investigators across nutrition, hepatology, epidemiology, and data science
• Conduct research with clear potential to improve patient care and population health

We welcome students with backgrounds or strong interests in epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition, microbiome science, bioinformatics, data science, or related fields.

🌱 Your PhD can do more than answer a research question.

Help us build the next generation of Food Is Medicine research for liver health.

📩 Interested?
Send your CV and a brief description of your research interests to:

Xiaotao Zhang, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Xiaotao.Zhang@mountsinai.org

Nutrition | Microbiome | Metabolism | MASLD/MASH | Multi-omics | Real-World Impact

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, and Weill Cornell Medicine are launching an innovative clinical trial that integrates nutrition directly into the treatment of metabolic liver disease. The program will provide medically tailored meals to patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) who are receiving new drug therapies, aiming to make behavioral lifestyle changes more achievable and sustainable.

Led by Drs. Xiaotao (Rony) Zhang, Meena Bansal, and Jeffrey Lazarus, the study represents a novel “food is medicine” approach that addresses both clinical and social determinants of health. By combining nutritional intervention with pharmacologic therapy, the trial seeks to improve outcomes, enhance treatment efficacy, and reduce health disparities related to diet and access to care.

Read more in the Specialty Report: https://mshs.co/4obq0Xv

From our intern-Jiangyuan Zhu

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have interned at Dr. Xiaotao Rony Zhang’s lab within the Translational Epidemiology Department at Mount Sinai for the past three months. During this time, I had the chance to engage in patient recruitment, data management, and intern mentorship.

Together with the team, we successfully recruited 44 patients for our study, and I was personally involved in recruiting 22 patients, completing this in just two months. This was my first experience contacting patients directly in a US clinical setting, which is rewarding and exciting.

In addition to recruitment, I was responsible for inputting demographic and pathological data into our study’s dataset, a task that gave me a deep appreciation for the importance of building a robust foundation for future analysis. I also had the pleasure of mentoring new interns, helping them integrate into the team and familiarize themselves with the study protocols.

I am deeply thankful to all the incredible providers in Liver department, colleagues in clinical research center, and especially Dr. Zhang for their guidance and support throughout this journey. This experience has not only enriched my research skills but also reinforced the value of teamwork in advancing medical research.

Thank you to everyone in Dr. Zhang’s lab and the Liver Department at Mount Sinai for making this such a memorable and impactful experience.

New Featured Publication

📄 Impact of Navy Beans on Gut Microbiome among patients at high risk for Colorectal Cancer 

A Pioneering Study Published in eBIOMedicine, 2023

🌟 Research at a Glance

• Title: Modulating a prebiotic food source influences inflammation and immune-regulating gut microbes and metabolites: insights from the BE GONE trial
• Lead Researchers: Xiaotao Zhang, Carrie Daniel-MacDougall, et al.
• Institutional Collaboration: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai & MD Anderson Cancer Center
• DOI for In-depth Reading: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104873

💡 Key Insights

• 🧬 Revolutionizing Gut Health: Discover how daily navy bean intake enhances gut microbiome diversity, benefiting CRC survivors.
• 🥗 Dietary Innovation: This research underscores the powerful role of diet in managing health post-cancer.
• 🎯 Targeted Prevention: Offers new perspectives on diet-based strategies for cancer prevention and management.

📚 Read the Full Paper

Dive deeper into our groundbreaking findings:

🔗 eBIOMedicine – Full Publication

Stay Tuned for More Updates on Our Cutting-Edge Research!