Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York

New York City, New York (April 3, 2025) – The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York (CZ Biohub NY) today announced nine new investigators to its growing roster of talented researchers. Joining from Columbia University, The Rockefeller University, and Yale University, the eight projects will focus on the Biohub’s mission to harness and bioengineer immune cells for the early detection, prevention, and treatment of a broad spectrum of age-related diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders and aggressive cancers. The funded projects support a variety of innovative strategies, including leveraging synthetic biology to address the limitations of current immune cell therapies and using models to enable insights into cellular networks and tissue adaptations in health and disease. “We are excited to welcome these new investigators to our collaborative community of researchers,” said Andrea Califano, Dr, president of CZ Biohub NY and the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “They are joining us as we pursue a complex challenge to harness the natural capabilities of our immune cells to detect and fix abnormalities in our bodies at very early stages. I look forward to their contributions and how we can shed light on biology’s hidden intricacies, making real progress toward detecting and preventing disease.” Diseases are often diagnosed only after obvious symptoms appear, while early signals that precede disease are generally missed. Immune cells are well suited to meet this challenge, as they constantly monitor and maintain the health of organs and tissues while circulating through the blood and lymphatic systems. By deciphering the molecular language employed by these cells to report problems they’ve identified, researchers can leverage and augment the cells’ abilities to spot and even treat hard-to-detect cancers and diseases that usually evade these cells. Better understanding and measuring how immune cells monitor abnormalities also creates enormous potential to program new functions into these cells, allowing them to take therapeutic actions, such as repairing damaged cells or eliminating diseased ones. The Investigator Program at CZ Biohub NY funds research by scientists, engineers, and technologists from Columbia, Rockefeller, and Yale, and is designed to identify and support researchers by providing them with unrestricted funding to pursue their most innovative and high-impact research projects. The nine new investigators will join a vibrant, collaborative, and supportive research community, gaining access to cutting-edge tools, expertise, and training opportunities.