Environmental Chemical Biology
Hui obtained his BSc from Peking University (PKU) in 2008 and then stayed at PKU for another 5 years for his Ph.D. research, under the supervision of Prof. Jianying Hu. After graduating, Hui spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and University of Saskatchewan. Hui joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto as a faculty member in 2017, where he currently leads his environmental chemical biology team.
 Anna received her B.Sc. in Chemistry with a concentration in Chemical Toxicology at Carleton University in May 2024. During her undergraduate degree, she was involved in biochemistry, nanoscience, analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry and even microbiology research, with her undergraduate thesis under Dr. Daniel Grégoire investigating the capability of microbially produced phenazine compounds to corrode cobalt. She joined the Peng and Abbatt groups for her Masters in September 2024 to study the toxicity of multiphase chemistry reactions involving organic contaminants in the indoor environment. In her spare time, Anna enjoys listening to music, going on walks, and watching British period pieces. |
 Hannah is from Port Moody, BC, and obtained an HBSc degree in Environmental Chemistry and Biomedical Toxicology at U of T in 2025. She did an undergraduate research project in her fourth year in the Peng group on 6PPD-Q and its influence on the metabolomic profile of coho salmon fish cells. She joined the Peng group as a Masters student in 2025 to continue her work in characterizing the toxic effects of 6PPDQ and identify its mechanism of action in coho salmon. Outside of the lab, she spends her time training for yet another half marathon or binge-watching something new on Netflix. |
 Diwen Yang obtained her masters degree from the Peng lab at the University of Toronto in 2022. She is currently a Ph.D. student supervised by Prof. Hui Peng in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences. In the Peng lab, she is working on identifying endocrine disrupting chemicals binding to human nuclear receptors from environmental matrices. Outside of the lab, she likes to play badminton and rock climbing. |
 Pranav was born in India, but has lived most of his life in both Mississauga, Ontario and Parsippany, New Jersey. He obtained his Honours Bachelor’s of Bioorganic Chemistry at McGill University in 2018, where he completed a research project in the Arndsten lab focused on palladium catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of aryl chlorides and substituted pyridines to form electrophilic salts. He joined University of Toronto’s Chemistry Department in 2019 as a PhD student co-supervised by Professors Datong Song and Hui Peng. The focus of his research is the design of activity based proteomic probes derived from various endo- and phyto-cannabinoids for the investigation of the cannabinoid system in the brain. |
 Jolie is from Bethesda, MD, and received her B.Sc. degree in Chemistry on the Biological Chemistry Track from Carnegie Mellon University in May 2021. During her undergraduate career, Jolie worked to advance TAML catalysts (a novel method of oxidative wastewater treatment) through kinetics studies on persistent micropollutants. Wanting to integrate both her interests in biochemistry and toxicology, Jolie joined the Peng lab as a PhD student in September of 2021, where she is working on determining the physical protein targets of organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs). This will help develop a method of determining the molecular initiating events of OPFR toxicity without invasive testing. Outside of the lab, Jolie enjoys reading queer fiction novels, baking, and playing with her two cats. |
 Wanzhen completed her Hon. BSc. at the University of Toronto with a Chemistry Specialist and Earth & Environmental Science Major. She joined the Peng group in January 2020, where she focused on the suspect screening of indoor transformed organophosphate compounds in house dust. She is currently a graduate student in the Civil and Mineral Engineering department at UofT, co-supervised by Professors Robert Andrews and Hui Peng. Her current project focuses on the non-targeted analysis of plastic additives and their chemical toxicities. Outside of the lab, her hobbies include playing board games and singing. |
 Alex received his B.Sc. in Chemistry and his M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Waterloo in 2018 and 2020, respectively. His primary interests during his time in Prof. Janusz Pawliszyn's Research Group were the development of solid-phase microextraction couplings to mass spectrometry, with applications in drugs of abuse quantification in biofluids and pesticide screening in food and feed. After some time spent working in industry and government, Alex joined the University of Toronto's Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry Department in 2024, co-supervised by Prof. Hui Peng and Prof. Frank Wania. In the Wania and Peng labs, Alex is working on developing air sampling strategies for the identification, source apportionment, and database construction of environmental pollutants. In his spare time, Alex enjoys cycling, running, and diving into a sci-fi or a history of science read. |
 Xing (Jessie) is from Shanghai, China. She earned her HBSc from the University of Toronto in 2025 with a Chemistry Specialist & Environmental Chemistry Major. She joined the Peng Group in her third year. During her undergraduate degree, she investigated environmental contaminants that interact with nuclear receptors with Rachel. Currently, she is completing her CHM499 research project and will soon begin studying ligands of G protein-coupled receptors. Beyond the lab, she enjoys exploring astrology and listening to music. |
 Sunny is from Penglai, China. She got her PhD degree from Peking University in 2014 under Professor Jianying Hu’s supervision, and then she spent three years as a PDF at University of Saskatchewan. Now she is a PDF in Hui’s lab, focusing on the research of high throughput identification of small metabolites bound to targeted proteins by pull-down assay. In her spare time, Sunny would go leisure swimming (because she swims very slow), although her spare time is almost taken by her daughter Vivian. |
 Linna is from Baoding, China, and she obtained her PhD degree from Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in January, 2018, under the supervision of Professor Benzhan Zhu. After that, she worked as an assistent professor in National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2022, she joined the Peng group as a PDF, and is currently working on non-targeted analysis of toxic chemicals in environmental mixtures using advanced mass spectrometry techniques. In her spare time, Linna likes cooking, doing yoga, and listening to music. |
 Xiaoyun is from Qingdao, China. She obtained her PhD degree from Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in June 2023, under the supervision of Prof. Guibin Jiang and Prof. Qunfang Zhou. After graduation, Xiaoyun joined the Peng group as a PDF, and is currently working on drug discovery based on ASMS and machine learning. In her spare time, Xiaoyun likes reading, and skateboarding. |
 Zhipeng is from Anqing, Anhui, China, and obtained his PhD degree from Nankai University in June, 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Hongwen Sun. After that, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant at Nankai university for three years. He joined Hui’s group in November, 2024 as a PDF, and is currently working on establishing an Affinity Selection Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) platform, integrated with combinatorial synthesis, to generate large chemical-protein interaction datasets for AI-driven bioactive chemical discovery. In his spare time, Zhipeng enjoys playing basketball and hiking. |
 Lai Yuan
Technician Lai is from Shanghai, China and obtained his bachelors degree at the University of Toronto in 2023. He joined the Peng group in his fourth year, where he worked on the analysis of 6PPD and its derivatives with Linna. He is now continuing working on the analysis of chlorinated paraffins in different environmental samples. In Lai's spare time, he enjoy playing guitar, swimming and of course, playing card and video games. |
 Oliver Meek
Undergraduate Student Oliver grew up in Boston but came to UofT to do his undergraduate in the Environmental Chemistry and Geosciences programs. In 2023 he joined the Peng group to help work on advanced analytical methods for tire wear compounds in river water, as well as other projects related to 6PPD. When he has the time, he enjoys cooking, reading, and paddling on a university dragon boat team. |
 Elizabeth is a third-year undergraduate student pursuing a specialist in Biological Chemistry and a major in Environmental Chemistry. She is currently working on developing computational methods to refine training data for scaling up mass spectrometry machine learning models for the ASMS and drug discovery projects. In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys hiking, baking and reading. |
 Zhuoyuan Li
Masters Student MSc (2023) |
 Dr. David Ross Hall
PhD Student PhD (2017-2022); now a Post Doctorate RA at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (Washington, USA). |
 Holly Barrett
PhD Student PhD (2018-2025), currently a Scientist in the Toxicology section at the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto. |
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Kirsten Yeung
PhD Student PhD (2018-2025) |
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Dr. Steven Kutarna
PhD Student PhD (2017-2023), currently postdoctoral fellow at the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) |
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Dr. Jiajun Han
Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2021); Currently a tenured professor at China Agricultural University in Beijing. |
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Dr. Min Liu
Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow (2022-2023), currently postdoctoral fellow at the University of Montreal |
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Dr. Yufeng Gong
Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2023); Currently a full professor at Ocean University of China in Qingdao. |
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Kevin Zhu
Undergraduate Student Honours thesis (2024) |
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Haiying Li
Undergraduate Student Honours thesis (2023) |
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Kaylin Tanoto
Undergraduate Student Undergraduate researcher (2023-2024) |
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Tony Hu
Undergraduate Student Summer student (2019) |
 Matin Bozorg
Undergraduate Student Honours BSc (2022) |
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Siwoo Lee
Undergraduate Student |
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Sumaiya Hassan
Undergraduate Student Honours thesis (2022) |
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Alexander Gurizzan
Undergraduate Student BSc (2019); Currently an Analytical Technician at Toronto Research Chemicals |
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Yusef Al-Molieh
Undergraduate Student Undergraduate researcher (2019) |
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Jesse Fu
Undergraduate Student Visiting undergraduate student (2019) |
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Wen Gu
Visiting Student Visiting researcher (2018-2019), currently PhD student in China CDC |
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Rui Li
Visiting Student Visiting scientist (2023-2024); Currently postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. |
 Zhiyuan Ma
Visiting Student Visiting scientist (2019); Currently a PhD student at Nanjing University, China |