Bio

B.S., Physics, Peking University, 2005Ph.D., Physics, The George Washington University, 2010Postdoc, Computational Biology, Harvard University, 2016

"We develop computational methods and use data science approaches to study how genes work in the chromatin and how they dysfunction in diseases like cancer."

Chongzhi Zang

Dr. Chongzhi Zang is an assistant professor and resident faculty member in the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia. He holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Public Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. He is also a faculty member in the UVA Cancer Center and the Data Science Institute.

Chongzhi did his undergraduate research in high-field laser physics with Jie Zhang at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his PhD research in computational epigenomics with Weiqun Peng at the George Washington University and Keji Zhao at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining UVA in 2016, he completed his postdoctoral training with Xiaole Shirley Liu at Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Chongzhi is a computational biologist with expertise in cancer epigenomics. His research focuses on algorithm development for high-throughput genomic data analytics and integrative modeling of gene regulatory networks in mammalian cell systems.

Awards

  • NIGMS Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) 2019-2024
  • NCI Career Transition Award 2017-2020
  • Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow Award 2012-2015
  • Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Prize 2010

Research Interests

  • Biomedical Data Sciences
  • Bioinformatics Methodology Development
  • Epigenetics and Chromatin Biology
  • Transcriptional Regulation
  • Cancer Genomics and Epigenomics
  • Theoretical and Computational Biophysics

Selected Publications

  • Cancer-specific CTCF binding facilitates oncogenic transcriptional dysregulation. Genome Biology 21, 247 (2020) ABS Fang C*, Wang Z*, Han C, Safgren SL, Helmin KA, Adelman ER, Serafin V, Basso G, Eagen KP, Gaspar-Maia A, Figueroa ME, Singer BD, Ratan A, Ntziachristos P, Zang C
  • Polyadenylation of Histone H3.1 mRNA Promotes Cell Transformation by Displacing H3.3 from Gene Regulatory Elements. iScience 23, 101518 (2020) ABS Chen D*, Chen QY*, Wang Z*, Zhu Y, Kluz T, Tan W, Li J, Wu F, Fang L, Zhang X, He R, Shen S, Sun H, Zang C, Jin C, Costa M
  • Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes. Nature 583, 699–710 (2020) ABS The ENCODE Project Consortium
  • Ectopic Tcf1 expression instills a stem-like program in exhausted CD8+ T cells to enhance viral and tumor immunity. Cellular & Molecular Immunology (2020) ABS Shan Q*, Hu S*, Chen X, Danahy DB, Badovinac VP, Zang C, Xue HH
  • Nickel-induced transcriptional changes persist post exposure through epigenetic reprogramming. Epigenetics & Chromatin 12, 75 (2019) ABS Jose CC*, Wang Z*, Tanwar VS, Zhang X, Zang C, Cuddapah S
  • BART: a transcription factor prediction tool with query gene sets or epigenomic profiles. Bioinformatics, bty194 (2018) ABS Wang Z, Civelek M, Miller CL, Sheffield NC, Guertin MJ, Zang C
  • Cistrome Cancer: a web resource for integrative gene regulation modeling in cancer. Cancer Research 77, e19–e22 (2017) ABS Mei S, Meyer CA, Zheng R, Qin Q, Wu Q, Jiang P, Li B, Shi X, Wang B, Fan J, Shih C, Brown M, Zang C, Liu XS
  • High-dimensional genomic data bias correction and data integration using MANCIE. Nature Communications 7, 11305 (2016) ABS Zang C*, Wang T*, Deng K, Li B, Hu S, Qin Q, Xiao T, Zhang S, Meyer CA, He HH, Brown M, Liu JS, Xie Y, Liu XS
  • Modeling cis-regulation with a compendium of genome-wide histone H3K27ac profiles. Genome Research 26, 1417–1429 (2016) ABS Wang S*, Zang C*, Xiao T, Fan J, Mei S, Qin Q, Wu Q, Li X, Xu K, He HH, Brown M, Meyer CA, Liu XS
  • NF-E2, FLI1 and RUNX1 collaborate at areas of dynamic chromatin to activate transcription in mature mouse megakaryocytes. Scientific Reports 6, 30255 (2016) ABS Zang C*, Luyten A*, Chen J, Liu XS, Shivdasani RA
  • Active enhancers are delineated de novo during hematopoiesis with limited lineage fidelity among specified primary blood cells. Genes and Development 28, 1827–1839 (2014) ABS Luyten A*, Zang C*, Liu XS, Shivdasani RA
  • NOTCH1-RBPJ complexes drive target gene expression through dynamic interactions with superenhancers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 111, 715–710 (2014) ABS Wang H*, Zang C*, Taing L, Arnett KL, Wong YJ, Pear WS, Blacklow SC, Liu XS, Aster JC
  • Genome-wide mapping of HATs and HDACs reveals distinct functions in active and inactive genes. Cell 138, 1019–1031 (2009) ABS Wang Z*, Zang C*, Cui K, Schones DE, Barski A, Peng W, Zhao K
  • A clustering approach for identification of enriched domains from histone modification ChIP-Seq data. Bioinformatics 25, 1952–1958 (2009) ABS Zang C, Schones DE, Zeng C, Cui K, Zhao K, Peng W
  • H3.3/H2A.Z double variant-containing nucleosomes mark ‘nucleosome-free regions’ of active promoters and other regulatory regions. Nature Genetics 41, 941–945 (2009) ABS Jin C*, Zang C*, Wei G, Cui K, Peng W, Zhao K, Felsenfeld G
  • Chromatin signatures in multipotent hematopoietic stem cells indicate the fate of bivalent genes during differentiation. Cell Stem Cell 4, 80–93 (2009) ABS Cui K*, Zang C*, Roh TY, Schones DE, Childs RW, Peng W, Zhao K
  • Combinatorial patterns of histone acetylations and methylations in the human genome. Nature Genetics 40, 897–903 (2008) ABS Wang Z*, Zang C*, Rosenfeld JA, Schones DE, Barski A, Cuddapah S, Cui K, Roh TY, Peng W, Zhang MQ, Zhao K
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