Summary
The Zhang laboratory studies the mechanisms that underlie how normal mammalian cells age and how tumor cells evade the process and become transformed. In particular, his laboratory is interested in how alterations in epigenetics, heritable changes that affects gene expression without changes in the underlying DNA sequence, lead to the evasion of the aging process during tumor development.
Understanding these mechanisms could lead to novel strategies for developing cancer therapeutics by forcing tumor cells into aging process. His laboratory primarily focuses on ovarian cancer that ranks first as the cause of death for gynecological cancers in the developed world.
