Assistant 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 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 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
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
High-dimensional genomic data bias correction and data integration using MANCIE. Nature Communications 7, 11305 (2016) ABSZang 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) ABSWang 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) ABSZang 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) ABSLuyten 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) ABSWang 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) ABSWang 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) ABSZang 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) ABSJin 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) ABSCui 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) ABSWang Z*, Zang C*, Rosenfeld JA, Schones DE, Barski A, Cuddapah S, Cui K, Roh TY, Peng W, Zhang MQ, Zhao K