Nathan Lian

“Humanistic studies to understand the human experience are the ideal foundation for exploring the world and expanding the limits of our understanding,” he says. “At Columbia, I’ve found a community that celebrates both depth and breadth of human knowledge.”

As a high school student in San Diego, Lian conducted research in Parkinson’s disease and related neurological disorders at the San Diego Computer Center, identifying gene targets for drug development and personalized therapies as well as presenting his work at several conferences and mentoring other students. He led a project designing personalized treatment for Parkinson’s patients in developing countries and co-authored a pending paper in Nature Communications. He also collaborated with cancer researchers to model a transcription factor involved in glioblastoma pathways, co-authoring a paper in the journal Oncotarget. Beyond his scientific work, he volunteered extensively, helped launch programs to mentor the next generation of leaders and innovators, and founded a policy magazine for young people in Southern California.

Lian had long dreamed of becoming a physician-scientist, but his father’s diagnosis with stage IV thymoma reinforced his determination to help engineer better treatments for patients. He hopes to harness the possibilities of big data for improving people’s health.

“Biomedical engineering and medical research are about more than simply translating scientific advances into clinical outcomes, but the provision of hope to families affected by debilitating diseases,” he says.

In addition to his classes at Columbia, Lian is an undergraduate researcher in Professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic’s Laboratory for Stem Cell and Tissue Engineeringand is working with a graduate student on a targeted drug-delivery system to alleviate the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. He has also joined a variety of student organizations, including the Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs (CORE) and The Journal of Global Health. In his free time, he plays guitar, explores New York City, and samples the endless variety of food across the five boroughs.

“I want to go into engineering because it is fundamentally unpredictable,” Lian says. “It’s a lifetime of flirting with what can and cannot be done, of adapting to the dynamic nature of society and the natural world, and of learning and contributing to the betterment of humankind.”