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Welcome!

The Chang Lab is a young, interdisciplinary lab at Cornell University working at the interface of chemical biology, immunology, microbial pathogenesis, and the gut microbiome. We are currently recruiting graduate students and postdoctoral scholars!

Our Research

We are colonized by trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi, which inhabit the external and internal surfaces of our bodies. It is becoming increasingly evident that these microbes play an important role in regulating many aspects of host physiology, including host defense and immunity. As a result, perturbations to the populations of commensal bacteria have been linked to many inflammatory diseases, including autoimmunity and chronic inflammatory conditions, and susceptibility to infections by microbial pathogens.

Our research focuses primarily on three areas:

(1) We develop activity-based probes to understand the metabolic activity catalyzed by the gut microbiome during different disease states.

(2) We also characterize the small-molecule metabolites produced by the gut microbiota that regulate inflammation during inflammatory diseases and host defense during infection with enteric pathogens.

(3) Building on these discoveries, we develop chemical tools to modulate the immune response using photo-immune modulators to understand the roles of specific immune cell types in vivo.

We employ biological and chemical approaches including the tools of microbiology, chemical biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular and cellular immunology to elucidate key communication pathways between the gut microbiota and the host immune system. Our ultimate goal is to understand how immune homeostasis and host defense are regulated in the intestines, as such discoveries would have broad implications for the development of therapeutics and prophylactics for many inflammatory diseases.

For more information, please see the Research page.

Photo credit: Dennis Kunkel Microscopy

News

Nov 2024

Welcome new postdoctoral scholar, Randy Hamchand, to the lab!! We're excited to have you join us!

June 2024

Congrats, Kien, for passing your A exam! Job well done!!

May 2024

Welcome, undergraduate Haein Kim (CCB '26) to the lab!

May 2024

Congratulations to our graduates, Dr. Lin Han, Raymond Xu CCB '24, and Julian Morales CCB '24! We will miss you, and best of luck with your future endeavors! Check out this awesome CCB highlight on Julian!

May 2024

Congrats, Tracy, for your advancement to PhD candidacy!

Apr 2024

Congratulations to Lin Han for successfully defending her PhD thesis! Also, kudos for your papers being accepted to ChemBioChem and Cell Chem Biol , Dr. Han!

Apr 2024

The lab welcomes CCB graduate student, Katie Bracken, to the group! Congrats, Katie, for your NSF GRFP and recent paper in JACS!

Apr 2024

Congrats to Pam for being named an ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator this year!

Mar 2024

A huge congrats to Sam for her paper being published in Nature! Woot woot!! Make sure to check out the Cornell Chronicle article about it. There's also a cool podcast from the American Society of Microbiology that nicely summarizes the work and concludes with a highlight about Sam! And the paper also got a highlight in Cell Host & Microbe!

Feb 2024

The lab welcomes CCB graduate student, Brian So, and CCB undergraduate, Nicole Yatskar, to the lab!

Oct 2023

Congrats to Kien for his paper being accepted to Biochemistry!!

July 2023

Check out Lin's review published in a special issue of Current Opinion in Chemical Biology!

Mar 2023

Congrats to Kien for receiving the prestigious NSF GRFP this year!!

Mar 2023

Check out Kien and Tracy's reviews published in special issues of the Israel Journal of Chemistry in honor of Ben Cravatt and Carolyn Bertozzi, the recipients of the 2022 Wolf Prize in Chemistry!

Oct 2022

Congratulations to Carolyn Bertozzi, Barry Sharpless, and Morten Meldal for winning the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry! Read about some of our connections to the discoveries behind this year’s prize in the Cornell Chronicle and Nature.

July 2022

A big congratulations to Pam for being promoted to Associate Professor with tenure!!

Jun 2022

Congrats to Kien for being selected as a CBI trainee!

Feb 2022

Congratulations to Pam for receiving a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation!

Nov 2021

Congrats to Lin for passing her A-exam! Woohoo!!

Nov 2021

Congrats to Sam for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis! Kudos to Dr. Scott!

Oct 2021

The lab welcomes Tracy Zheng, a CCB graduate student, to the group! Welcome, Tracy!!

Aug 2021

The lab welcomes Kien Malarney, a Microbiology graduate student, to the group!

July 2021

The lab bids a warm farewell to Bibudha Parasar and Amanda Conwell and wishes them the best of luck in the next chapter of their journey!

July 2021

Congratulations to Bibudha for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis! Way to go, Dr. Parasar!

July 2021

Check out our video on our projects that are supported by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation!

Mar 2021

Congrats, JJ, on your new position! Good luck on your next chapter of life!

Nov 2020

Check out Bibudha's First Reaction preview article in ACS Cent Sci!

Sept 2020

Kudos to Bibudha, whose paper was accepted by JACS! A HUGE congrats!

Jul 2020

The lab welcomes Amanda Conwell, a research technician, to the group! Welcome — we're excited to have you join us!

Jun 2020

Congratulations to Samantha and JJ for their paper being accepted to PNAS! Bravo!!

Mar 2020

Congrats to Pam for being named a Scialog Fellow! Way to go!!

Oct 2019

The lab welcomes Lin Han, a CCB first-year graduate student, to the lab! We are happy to have you as part of the group, Lin!

Sept 2019

Congratulations to Pam for receiving an NIH R35 Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators!

May 2019

Check out Gael's review about metabolites and the gut microbiome, which is featured on the cover, in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences!

Apr 2019

Congratulations to Bibudha for his paper being accepted by ACS Central Science! Job well done!!

Mar 2019

Kudos to Jingjing for receiving the prestigious CIHMID postdoctoral fellowship!! Congrats, JJ!

Jan 2019

Welcome postdoctoral associate, Jingjing Fu, to the lab!!

Dec 2018

Congratulations to Pam for winning the Schwartz Travel Award! See the article in the Cornell Chronicle.

Jul 2018

Research in the Chang Lab was highlighted in the Cornell Chronicle at the recent joint Immunology symposium between the Weill Cornell and Ithaca campuses!

Mar 2018

Congratulations to Gael for receiving an Honorable Mention for the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship!

Dec 2017

Great job, Samantha, for passing her A exam! Congrats!!

Aug 2017

Our lab's research is the focus of Cornell Research! Go, Team!!

Aug 2017

Congrats to Bibudha for passing his A exam! Way to go, Champ!!

May 2017

Congratulations to Pam for receiving a Beckman Young Investigator Award and thank you to the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for their support! Check out the recent news article in the Cornell Chronicle.

Mar 2017

Congrats to Samantha for receiving an NSF GRFP Honorable Mention!

Oct 2016

Kudos to Bibudha for his paper being accepted to Chemical Science!! Job well done! Check out the press coverage in the Cornell Chronicle and the Cornell Daily Sun!

May 2016

Congrats to Pam for receiving an Affinito-Stewart Grant and thank you to the PCCW for their support!

May 2016

Kudos to Samantha for being awarded the CALS Outstanding TA Award!

May 2016

Welcome new graduate students, Gael and Samantha!

Mar 2016

Congratulations to Samantha for an Honorable Mention in the NSF GRFP competition this year!

Nov 2015

Welcome CCB graduate student Bibudha Parasar to the lab!

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