Dr. Zhang’s lab investigates how environmental and nutritional factors shape cardiovascular and metabolic health across the life course. The lab focuses on modifiable risks during pregnancy, childhood, and adulthood, with particular attention to populations that experience disproportionate environmental burdens.
Summer 2027 student opportunities · Current funded projects · Past funding
Summer 2027 student opportunities
Please note that these opportunities are only available to current Harvard Medical School students.
View the BIDMC–Shapiro Scholars Summer 2027 project listings.
Current funded projects
Lab-led projects
Metal mixtures and maternal health from pregnancy to midlife
From Pregnancy to Mid-Life: Metal Mixtures and Health Behaviors Shaping Maternal Cardiometabolic Health Over 20 Years
American Heart Association · 24CDA1257852 · 2024–2027
Principal Investigator: Mingyu Zhang, PhD, MHS, FAHA
This project follows women in Project Viva from pregnancy to midlife to examine how mixtures of toxic metals and essential trace elements relate to long-term cardiometabolic health. It also evaluates whether healthy behaviors, including components of the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, may modify these associations and identify opportunities for prevention.
Metal mixtures and diabetes across the reproductive lifespan
Toxic Disparities: Metal Mixtures and Diabetes Risks Across the Reproductive Lifespan of Black and Hispanic Women
American Diabetes Association · 7-24-ICTSWH-10 · 2024–2027
Principal Investigator: Mingyu Zhang, PhD, MHS, FAHA
Using the Boston Birth Cohort, this project investigates pregnancy exposure to metal mixtures in relation to gestational diabetes and the later development of type 2 diabetes among Black and Hispanic women. Proteomic analyses help investigate potential biological pathways linking early exposures with diabetes risk across the reproductive lifespan.
ADA research spotlight featuring Dr. Zhang · Boston Birth Cohort
Pregnancy temperature and maternal and child cardiovascular health
Ambient Temperature During Pregnancy and the Cardiovascular Health of Pregnant People and Their Children
ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund · 2024–2026
Project Principal Investigator: Mingyu Zhang, PhD, MHS, FAHA
Supported through the NIH-funded ECHO program (U2COD023375-08), via the ECHO Oken Award
This project uses data from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program to examine ambient temperature during pregnancy in relation to maternal blood-pressure trajectories and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, as well as offspring blood pressure across childhood and adolescence. The aim is to identify sensitive periods and inform prevention in a changing climate.
Collaborative funded projects
Early-life toxicants and cardiovascular-health trajectories
Environmental Toxicants and Cardiovascular Health Trajectories Across Childhood and Adolescence
NIH/NHLBI · R01HL183379 · 2026–2030
Principal Investigator: Izzuddin M. Aris, PhD
Using Project Viva, this study examines early-life environmental toxicants in relation to cardiovascular-health trajectories from childhood through adolescence. It integrates longitudinal measures of cardiovascular health with metabolomic data to investigate potential pathways connecting early exposures to later risk.
Environmental risks and kidney-health trajectories
Neighborhood and Individual Environmental Risk Factors in Early Life and -Omics Biomarkers for Kidney Function Trajectories Across Childhood and Adulthood
NIH/NIEHS · R01ES038119 · 2026–2030
Principal Investigator: Izzuddin M. Aris, PhD
This Project Viva study examines neighborhood conditions and individual exposure to air pollutants and metals as determinants of kidney function and blood-pressure trajectories. Urinary proteomics will help characterize biological signatures associated with exposure and changes in kidney health from childhood into early adulthood.
Past funding
AHA Predoctoral Fellowship · 2021–2022
In utero exposure to heavy metals and trace elements, maternal and cord metabolome, and childhood blood pressure
American Heart Association · Award 827990
Principal Investigator: Mingyu Zhang
April 1, 2021–August 26, 2022
This Boston Birth Cohort project examined prenatal exposure to lead, mercury, cadmium, manganese, and selenium in relation to childhood blood pressure. Maternal and cord-blood metabolomics were used to investigate potential biological pathways.
