Staff Directory

I was born in the northernmost part of China, but raised in the southernmost part when my family moved. After graduation from college from Sun Yat-sen University, once again I moved from the eastern hemisphere to the western. I completed my PhD training at Columbia with an emphasis on developing cutter-edge tools for biological studies. During the PhD course, I invented Rdots for multiplexed imaging with SRS microscopy. Since then I pivoted my focus to translational studies. Currently, I’m working on in vitro diagnostic assays that hopefully can be game changer and help improve the global heath inequality by providing cheaper, faster and more accurate molecular tests.

Xuemeng Li was born and raised in Xining, Qinghai, in northwestern China. She received her BS in Chemistry from Nanjing University in June 2022. In August 2022, she joined the Min Lab and is currently pursuing her PhD in Chemical Physics at Columbia University.

I'm interested in combining vibrational imaging with machine learning for novel biomedical applications, including phenotypic profiling, drug discovery and integration with multi-omics data.

Dr. Wei Min graduated from Peking University, China, with a Bachelor's degree in 2003. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 2008 studying single-molecule biophysics with Prof. Sunney Xie. After continuing his postdoctoral work in Xie group, Dr. Min joined the faculty of Department of Chemistry at Columbia University in 2010, and has been a tenured full Professor since 2017. Dr. Min's current research interests focus on developing novel optical spectroscopy and microscopy technology to address biomedical problems. Dr. Min's contribution has been recognized by a number of honors, including:

• Power list as one of the Top 100 most influential people in analytical science over the past decade (2023)
• Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award, International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) (2023)
• Craver Award of Vibrational Spectroscopy, Coblentz Society (2022)
• The Raman Award for the Most Innovative Technological Development, International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy (ICORS) (2022)
• Scientific Achievement Award, the Royal Microscopical Society (2021)
• Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, Faculty Finalist (2021)
• Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, Faculty Finalist (2020)
• Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, Faculty Finalist (2019)
• Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award (2019)
• Analyst Emerging Investigator Lectureship (2018)
• ACS Early Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry (2017)
• Coblentz Award in Molecular Spectroscopy (2017)
• Buck-Whitney Award of American Chemical Society (2015)
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2015)
• George Fraenkel Fund Award (2014)
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2013)
• National Institute of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award (2012)
• Young Investigator in Analytical and Bioanalytical Science (2012)
• Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists of the New York Academy of Sciences, Faculty Finalist (2012)
• Research Initiatives for Science and Engineering (RISE) Award of Columbia University (2012)

Mian graduated from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) with a bachelor degree. He got his PhD degree at Columbia University, working with Professor Wei Min. For his thesis research, Mian developed a set of volumetric Raman microscopy methods, extending the imaging depth in scattering tissues by 10~100 folds. He continues to work in Professor Min’s group as a postdoctoral researcher. For his postdoctoral research, Mian is working on vibrational microscopy of nanomedicine and spatial omics. His work on nanomedicine has led to an optical method for imaging drug nanocarriers in tissues with single-particle sensitivity, chemical specificity, and particle counting capability. For the first time, this method has allowed us to visualize individual nanocarriers crossing the blood-brain barrier. His work on spatial omics aims to realize the holy grail of the field: three-dimensional spatial omics and spatial-temporal omics.

Cyrus was born and raised in Hong Kong. He earned his BBiomedSc in Biomedical Sciences and Chemistry from the University of Hong Kong where he studied the chemical biology of nucleic acid aptamers under Professor Julian Tanner. Before moving to Columbia, he was a research assistant and worked under Professor Pauline Chiu on medicinal chemistry and synthetic methodology development. Cyrus joined the Min group in Fall 2023 and his major research interests are biophysics, spectroscopy, and imaging. Outside of the lab, Cyrus enjoys running and rock climbing. He is also a big foodie and hopes to explore all the good restaurants in the city. 

Carli Canela is a second year graduate student in the chemistry department. She completed her Bachelor of Engineering at The City College of New York where she worked as a research assistant in the CCNY Neural Engineering Group in Professor Marom Bikson's lab from August 2019 - June 2022. There, she worked on the production of specialized canes for blind toddlers. She also assisted in the analysis of large data sets acquired during electroconvulsive therapy to help develop a computer model for changes to the electric field of tissue. At Columbia she worked in the Nuckolls and Venkataraman groups where she researched methods in the quantitative analysis of small-scale reactions by means of fluorescence. She is now a member of the Min Group where she helps with research in vibrational probe development, analysis of nanoplastics, and imaging techniques. Carli is a NYC native who enjoys playing tennis and going for hikes with her dog Jordy.