{"id":3,"date":"2023-04-04T19:02:15","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T19:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/?page_id=3"},"modified":"2026-10-05T17:12:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T17:12:41","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/","title":{"rendered":"Diet, Microbiome and Liver Disease Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are a research group at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, on Manhattan&#8217;s Upper East Side. We use epidemiology, nutrition science and microbiome research to study liver disease and cancer prevention, and to test whether changing what people eat can help.<\/p>\n<p>Much of our work centers on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its more severe form, MASH. We run dietary intervention trials, lead the nutrition, microbiome and biostatistics core of the Mount Sinai MASH Registry, and analyze diet, microbiome and clinical data together. We collaborate widely and are glad to hear from people in related fields. The team currently includes a research assistant, graduate students and a high school trainee.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/research-2\/\">Read more about our research<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_536\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 640px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-536\" src=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2026\/03\/office-photo-with-team-member-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Lab members in a project meeting\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2026\/03\/office-photo-with-team-member-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2026\/03\/office-photo-with-team-member-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2026\/03\/office-photo-with-team-member-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2026\/03\/office-photo-with-team-member-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2026\/03\/office-photo-with-team-member-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2026\/03\/office-photo-with-team-member-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A project meeting in the lab.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>See our lab introduction and new NIH R01 story here. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/microbiome_epi\/status\/2090131363068268917?s=20\">New NIH R01 on dietary intervention on MASLD\/MASH<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Recent news<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In August 2026 we received an NIH\/NIDDK R01 (1R01DK148865-01) for BEAN-MASLD, a randomized crossover feasibility trial of navy beans in adults with MASLD (<a href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/study\/NCT07730853\">ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07730853<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>We are co-leading a multicenter trial of medically tailored meals for patients with MASH who are taking resmetirom, supported by Madrigal Pharmaceuticals. <a href=\"https:\/\/reports.mountsinai.org\/article\/liver2026-mash-meals\">Mount Sinai Reports wrote about the study<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Three posters from the lab were accepted for AASLD The Liver Meeting 2026 in Denver this November.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Zhang now directs a graduate course in Nutritional Epidemiology at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/news\/\">More news<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>What we work on<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Food-based interventions for MASLD and MASH<\/li>\n<li>Diet, the oral and gut microbiome, and liver fibrosis<\/li>\n<li>Real-world epidemiology and health disparities in liver disease<\/li>\n<li>Diet, the microbiome and cancer prevention<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our work is supported by NIH\/NIDDK and industry partners (<a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/funding-clinical-trials\/\">funding and clinical trials<\/a>). Dr. Zhang also directs the <a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/mount-sinai-bionutrition-research-core\/\">Mount Sinai Bionutrition Research Core<\/a>, which supports nutrition studies across Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n<h2>Principal Investigator<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-103 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2023\/04\/Profile-photo.jpg\" alt=\"Xiaotao (Rony) Zhang, MD, PhD\" width=\"254\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2023\/04\/Profile-photo.jpg 1079w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2023\/04\/Profile-photo-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2023\/04\/Profile-photo-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2023\/04\/Profile-photo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/479\/2023\/04\/Profile-photo-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 254px) 100vw, 254px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit !important\"><strong>Xiaotao (Rony) Zhang, MD, PhD  <\/strong>                                 <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Assistant Professor<\/p>\n<p>Director, Mount Sinai Bionutrition Research Core<\/p>\n<p>Institute for Translational Epidemiology<br \/>\nDivision of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine<br \/>\nCancer Prevention and Control, The Tisch Cancer Institute<br \/>\nIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai<br \/>\nIcahn Medical Institute, 2<sup>nd<\/sup> Floor, Suite L2-70E, PO 1133<br \/>\n1425 Madison Ave, New York, NY, 10029<br \/>\nPhone: 212-659-5555<br \/>\nEmail: <a href=\"mailto:Xiaotao.Zhang@mountsinai.org\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit !important\">Xiaotao.Zhang@mountsinai.org<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nLab web: <a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit !important\">https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Join us<\/h2>\n<p>We are recruiting PhD students and research interns with interests in nutrition, the microbiome, epidemiology or biostatistics. <a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/current-openings\/\">See current openings<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are a research group at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, on Manhattan&#8217;s Upper East Side. We use epidemiology, nutrition science and microbiome research to study liver disease and cancer prevention, and to test whether changing what people eat can help. Much of our work centers on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":545,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/545"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":82,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/xiaotaozhanglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}