Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
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 Award2020
NIGMS Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA)2019-2024
NCI Career Transition Award2017-2020
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow Award2012-2015
Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Prize2010
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) ABSSmith 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) ABSTurner 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) ABSShan 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) ABSShi 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) ABSMa 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) ABSWang Z, Zhang Y, Zang C
BART Cancer: a web resource for transcriptional regulators in cancer genomes. NAR Cancer 3, zcab011 (2021) ABSThomas ZV, Wang Z, Zang C
Cancer-specific CTCF binding facilitates oncogenic transcriptional dysregulation. Genome Biology 21, 247 (2020) ABSFang 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) ABSChen 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) ABSThe 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) ABSShan 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) ABSJose 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) ABSWang 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) ABSMei 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#