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 associate 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

  • University of Virginia Research Excellence Award 2020
  • 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

  • Single-cell chromatin profiling of the primitive gut tube reveals regulatory dynamics underlying lineage fate decisions. Nature Communications 13, 2965 (2022) ABS Smith RJ*, Zhang H*, Hu SS*, Yung T, Francis R, Lee L, Onaitis MW, Dirks PB, Zang C#, Kim T-H#
  • Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility profiling highlights regulatory mechanisms of coronary artery disease risk. Nature Genetics (2022) ABS Turner AW*, Hu SS*, Mosquera JV, Ma WF, Hodonsky CJ, Wong D, Auguste G, Song Y, ..., Zang C#, Miller#
  • Tcf1 preprograms the mobilization of glycolysis in central memory CD8+ T cells during recall responses. Nature Immunology 23, 386–398 (2022) ABS Shan Q*, Hu SS*, Zhu S, Chen X, Badovinac VP, Peng W, Zang C#, Xue HH#
  • UTX condensation underlies its tumour-suppressive activity. Nature 597, 726–731 (2021) ABS Shi B*, Li W*, Song Y*, Wang Z*, Ju R, Ulman A, Hu J, Palomba F, Zhao Y, Le JP, Jarrard W, Dimoff D, Digman MA, Gratton E, Zang C, Jiang H
  • BARTweb: a web server for transcriptional regulator association analysis. NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics 3(2), lqab022 (2021) ABS Ma W*, Wang Z*, Zhang Y, Magee NE, Feng Y, Shi R, Chen Y, Zang C
  • BART3D: Inferring transcriptional regulators associated with differential chromatin interactions from Hi-C data. Bioinformatics 37, 3075–3078 (2021) ABS Wang Z, Zhang Y, Zang C
  • BART Cancer: a web resource for transcriptional regulators in cancer genomes. NAR Cancer 3, zcab011 (2021) ABS Thomas ZV, Wang Z, Zang C
  • 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#
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