Current Members
Rong Tian
Director of Mitochondria and Metabolism Center
Professor of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, and Bioengineering
Adjunct Professor, Biochemistry and Pathology
Dr. Rong Tian obtained her MD from the West China University of Medical Sciences and her PhD in Pharmacology from Aarhus University in Denmark. After postdoctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School she stayed on faculty and raised through the ranks to Associate Professor at Harvard University. In 2009, she was recruited to the University of Washington and founded the university-wide, interdisciplinary Mitochondria & Metabolism Center of which has since served as the director. Dr. Tian is recognized for her research of myocardial energetics and metabolism. Her work is prominent in three cutting edge and inter-related areas: bioenergetics, metabolism, and mitochondrial biology. In the past twenty years, her laboratory has made seminal contributions to the field by combining the multi-nuclear NMR spectroscopy of genetically engineered mouse models with the powerful technology of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Dr. Tian’s research is a major stimulus to the translational research that links basic science, engineering and clinical investigations as heart failure becomes a predominant diagnosis in our aging and obese population. (learn more)
Fu-Yen Chang
Lab Manager, Research Scientist
Fu-Yen Chang joined the lab in November 2023 as the lab manager and research scientist. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the Tian lab and provides research support to fellow lab members. Additionally, she manages the MCC shared equipment and is responsible for the Seahorse Extracellular Flux Analyzer. Fu-Yen holds a master’s degree in Nutrition & Integrative Physiology from the University of Utah, where her studies focused on the impact of dietary carotenoids and omega-3 fatty acids on the human macula and in animal models. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, snowboarding, cooking and exploring the local food scene.
Melisa Herrero
Senior Research Fellow
Melisa Herrero joined the lab in March 2021 as a research fellow. Her project involves understanding the ER-mitochondria interaction in cardiomyocytes under heart failure. Melisa holds a PhD from The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University, where she studied the regulation of protein synthesis and mitochondrial function in the brain in the context of a neurodegenerative disease termed “Vanishing White Matter (VWM) disease”.
Tim McMillen
Research Scientist
Tim McMillen joined the lab as a research scientist in February 2018. After earning a Nutritional Sciences PhD from UW in 2003, he worked as a research scientist in the LeBoeuf laboratory with mouse models of inflammatory metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes and heart disease. In Dr. Tian’s laboratory he performs Langendorff heart perfusions in conjunction with NMR to assess cardiac function, substrate utilization and energetics.
Dennis Wang
Senior Research Fellow
Dennis Wang joined the lab in July 2018 as a research fellow. His current project studies the effect of nicotinamide riboside (NR) supplementation in human heart failure. Dennis received his B.S. from UC Berkeley, double-majoring in computer science and molecular & cell biology. After receiving his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from UC Irvine, he completed his internal medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dennis is now a clinical cardiology fellow at University of Washington. He enjoys spending time with his family, reading, and drinking coffee in his spare time.
Matthew Walker
Research Assistant Professor
Matthew Walker joined the lab in 2016 as a research fellow. Matthew holds a Ph.D. in cardiovascular pharmacology from the Medical College of Georgia. He is focused on understanding the role mitochondrial dysfunction plays in the progression of heart failure. He has a particular interest in exploring the translational potential of metabolic and mitochondrial targeted therapies.
Durba Banerjee
Senior Research Fellow
Durba joined the lab in October 2021 as a Postdoctoral scholar. Her project involves understanding the interplay between the metabolic changes in immune cells and the concurrent cardiac diseases. Durba holds a PhD from The University of Calcutta, India, where she studied the role of C/EBPb in altering the metabolic homeostasis of cardiomyocytes during pathological cardiac hypertrophy. She loves exploring new places and trying multicultural cuisines.
