Research Areas

1. Application of patient-specific hiPSC-CMs in cardiovascular disease precision medicine and regenerative medicine

2. The role of non-cardiomyocytes in cardiovascular disease

3. Phenotypic high throughput screening 

Highlights

Dr. Zhang has long been focusing on basic and translational research in the cardiovascular research field. His research work aims to address the challenging questions in the cardiovascular research field using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) coupled with genome-editing technology. Dr. Zhang generated a novel double fluorescent hiPSC reporter tool that facilitates elucidation and isolation of human cardiac lineages, identification of cell surface marker, CORIN, and precise drug testing. Since the reporter line is available to the cardiac research field, it has been requested by multiple international research organizations. For the first time, Dr. Zhang and collaborators validate the pathogenicity of a variant of unknown significance in vitro using patient-specific hiPSCs, which is the cornerstone of the application of hiPSCs in cardiovascular precision medicine. Based on his research work, Dr. Zhang has published 7 first-author/co-first author papers on top journals, such as Cell Stem Cell and Circulation. Up to date, he has published 21 papers in total. According to his excellent achievements, Dr. Zhang has been awarded a Mentorship Program Award by the American Heart Association, Best Poster Prize by the International Society for Heart Association European Section, and HOPE fellow by The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, etc. Moreover, Dr. Zhang has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) organization, USA.

Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes

Honors

• 2021 基金委国家重大人才工程计划（青年）

• • 2019     American Heart Association (AHA) Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) Early Career Mentorship Program Award

• • 2018    AHA BCVS Scientific Sessions New Investigator Travel Award

• • 2017-2019    Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) Postdoctoral Fellowship

• • 2015     Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) HOPE Fellow

• • 2015    International Society for Heart Research (ISHR)-European Section (ES) Best Poster Prize

• • 2015    ISHR-ES Travel Award

• • 2015    Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust Travel Award

• • 2015    Brooker United Travel Doctoral Travel Scholarship

• • 2014    Nominated delegate by Royal Society of New Zealand to attend the 7^th HOPE meeting with Nobel Laureates in Japan

• • 2014    Exemplary Participant Award at Gordon Research Seminar

• • 2013    Claude McCarthy Fellowship

• • 2013    Elman Poole Scholarship

• • 2012-2015    University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship

Related News

Trio off to Japan meeting 

(https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/trio-japan-meeting)

Selected Publications

1. Zhang JZ*, Belbachir N*, Zhang T*, Liu Y, Shrestha R, Wu JC. (2021). Effect of Cryopreservation on Human iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes for Assessing Drug Safety Response Profiles. Stem Cell Reports, 16(1):168-181. (* Co-first author)

2. Zhang JZ, Termglinchan V, Shao NY, Itzhaki I, Liu C, Ma N, Tian L, Wang VY, Chang ACY, Guo H, Kitani T, Wu H, Lam CK, Kodo K, Sayed N, Blau HM, Wu JC. (2019). A Human iPSC Double-Reporter System Enables Purification of Cardiac Lineage Subpopulations with Distinct Function and Drug Response Profiles. Cell Stem Cell, 24(5): 802-811.e5.

3. Ma N*, Zhang JZ*, Itzhaki I*, Zhang SL, Chen H, Haddad F, Kitani T, Wilson KD, Tian L, Shrestha R, Wu H, Lam CK, Sayed N, Wu JC. (2018). Determining the Pathogenicity of a Genomic Variant of Uncertain Significance Using CRISPR/Cas9 and Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Circulation, 138(23):2666-2681. (* Co-first author)

4. Zhang JZ, Guo HC, Wu JC. (2018). Applications of genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cell reporters in cardiac stem cell biology. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 52:66-73.

5. Zhang JZ, Waddell HM, Wu E, Dholakia J, Okolo CA, McLay JC, Jones PP. (2016). FKBPs facilitate the termination of spontaneous Ca²⁺ release in wild-type RyR2 but not CPVT mutant RyR2. Biochemical Journal, 473(14), 2049-60.