Yunjia Lai

2025 Regional Award Finalist — Post-Doc

Yunjia Lai

Current Position:
Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Institution:
Columbia University

Discipline:
Analytical Chemistry

Recognized for: Pioneering mass spectrometry innovations to map and screen environmental exposures and biological changes that drive neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Exposomics, Systems Toxicology, Metabolomics, Aging and Age-Related Disease, Environmental Health

Previous Positions:

B.Agr., Huazhong Agricultural University, China (Advisor: Fangsen Xu)
M.S., Beijing Normal University, China (Advisor: Xinghui Xia)
M.Sc., University of California, Davis, USA (Advisor: Oliver Fiehn)
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA (Advisor: Kun Lu)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University, USA (Advisor: Gary W. Miller)

Research Summary:

Yunjia Lai, PhD, develops innovative ways to understand how everyday environmental exposures - from air and food to consumer products - affect health and disease. By integrating advanced chemistry tools like high-resolution mass spectrometry with biology and public health, Lai maps the complex “exposome,” or the totality of environmental factors people encounter. This approach enables simultaneous detection of thousands of chemicals in the body and reveals how they contribute to diseases such as Parkinson’s. Through innovative analytical workflows and large-scale studies, Lai identifies both harmful exposures and protective factors, advancing disease prevention, personalized medicine, and our understanding of how the environment shapes biology.

“The human exposome encompasses numerous uncharted lifelong exposures that critically complement our genome in shaping health, motivating our chemistry pursuits to uncover disease contributors and therapeutic targets. I’m deeply honored and incredibly grateful to receive the prestigious Blavatnik Award in recognition of my work.”

Key Publications:

  1. Y. Lai, J. Koelmel, D.I. Walker, E.J. Price, S. Papazian, K.E. Manz, D.C. Fernández, J.A. Bowden, V. Nikiforov, A. David, V. Bessonneau, B. Amer, S. Seethapathy, X. Hu, E.Z. Lin, A. Jbebli, B.R. McNeil, D. Barupal, M. Cerasa, H. Xie, V. Kalia, R. Nandakumar, R. Singh, Z. Tian, G. Peng, Y. Zhao, M. Froment, P. Rostkowski, S. Dubey, K. Coufalíková, H. Seličová, H. Hecht, S. Liu, H.H. Udhani, S. Restituito, K.-M. Tchou-Wong, K. Lu, J.W. Martin, B. Warth, K.J.G. Pollitt, J. Klánová, O. Fiehn, T.O. Metz, K. Pennell, D.P. Jones, G.W. Miller. High-resolution mass spectrometry for human exposomics: expanding chemical space coverage. Environmental Science & Technology, 2024.
  2. Y. Lai, P. Reina-Gonzalez, G. Maor, G.W. Miller, S. Sarkar. Biotin mitigates the development of manganese-induced, Parkinson’s disease-related neurotoxicity in Drosophila and human neurons. Science Signaling, 2025.
  3. Y. Zhao*, Y. Lai*, H. Konijnenberg, J.M. Huerta, A. Vinagre-Aragon, J.A. Sabin, J. Hansen, D. Petrova, C. Sacerdote, R. Zamora-Ros, V. Pala, A.K. Heath, S. Panico, M. Guevara, G. Masala, C.M. Lill, G.W. Miller, S. Peters, R. Vermeulen. Association of coffee consumption and prediagnostic caffeine metabolites with incident Parkinson’s disease in a population-based cohort. Neurology, 2024.
  4. Y. Lai, M. Ay, C.V. Duarte-Hospital, G.W. Miller, S. Sarkar. Functional exposomics and mechanisms of toxicity—insights from model systems and NAMs. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2024.

Other Honors:

2025 InnoStar Best Abstract Award, 2nd Place, American Association of Chinese in Toxicology (AACT)
2025 Postdoctoral Scholar Research Award, 2nd Place, Molecular & Systems Biology Specialty Section, Society of Toxicology (SOT)
2024 Editors’ Choice Award (July 10, 2024; <1% selection rates), American Chemical Society (ACS)
2023 ARPA-H Dash Brackets: Top 64 National Transformative Ideas for Future Health, NIH
2021 NIEHS Extramural “Papers of the Month” Award
2019 Student Award, Top 5 Abstracts in Mixtures Specialty Section, Society of Toxicology (SOT)
2018 Chen-Yu Yen & Ray-Whay C. Yen Graduate Fellowship, UNC
2014 Gail E. & Ruth M. Oliver Graduate Fellowship, UC Davis
2014 Agricultural & Environmental Chemistry Graduate Fellowship, UC Davis

In the Media:

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