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Zhong Lab News


November 9^th, 2023	Zhong Lab manuscript entitled “Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Spikes shapes their binding affinities to animal ACE2 orthologs” is now available online. Congratulations to Weitong Yao, Yujun Li, and Danting Ma, equal first authors of this manuscript & former lab members of Zhong Lab before we started at UMass Chan. Cheers!
October 18, 2023	Mengjia shared an 'ancient' but wonderful 'news' that she won the first prize in Peking University School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology's first annual Doctoral Research Forum on Disease Target and Novel Drug Discovery. Mengjia Lu was the first Zhong Lab PhD student graduated in July 2023 from Peking University. The prize-winning talk was about her PhD thesis work. Good job, Mengjia!
October 18-19, 2023	All the Zhong Lab members attended the Nature Conference - "Cracking the Code: The Dawn of Nucleic Acid Medicines" and enjoyed two days of informative and inspiring talks from great speakers like Phillip Sharp, Judy Lieberman, James Dahlman, Erez Levanon, and John Maraganore, etc. On day one of the conference, Guocai also gave a short talk sharing Zhong Lab's very exciting progress on "RNA switch-based temporal regulation of in vivo genome editing".
October 8^th, 2023	Zhong Lab manuscript entitled “Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Spikes shapes their binding affinities to animal ACE2 orthologs” is accepted for publication by ASM journal Microbiology Spectrum. Congratulations to Weitong Yao, Yujun Li, and Danting Ma, equal first authors of this manuscript & former lab members of Zhong Lab before we started at UMass Chan. Cheers!
October 7^th, 2023	Dr. Mengjia Lu (Postdoctoral Associate) arrived in Worcester and will start her position in Zhong Lab on October 16^th . Welcome Mengjia!
July 3^rd, 2023	Zhong Lab Microbiology Spectrum article, Broadly effective ACE2 decoy proteins protect mice from lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection, is now available online. Congratulations to Mengjia Lu, Weitong Yao, Yujun Li, and Danting Ma, equal first authors of this manuscript & former lab members of Zhong Lab before we started at UMass Chan. Cheers!
June 6^th, 2023	Zhong Lab manuscript entitled “Broadly effective ACE2 decoy proteins protect mice from lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection” is accepted for publication by ASM journal Microbiology Spectrum. Cheers!
May 20^th, 2023	Dr. Chengzhi Du arrived in Worcester and joined Zhong Lab as Postdoctoral Associate. Welcome Chengzhi!
May 18^th, 2023 3:15 am	Mengjia Lu, Zhong lab's first graduate student, successfully passed her PhD thesis defense at Peking University and will soon rejoin us as a Postdoctoral Associate at UMass. Great job and congratulations, Mengjia!
March 20^th, 2023	Xiaojuan Tang, 3rd year graduate student at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, joined us as a visiting graduate student. Wei Zhan, 1st year Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences student, joined us to do her third rotation. Welcome Xiaojuan and Wei!
March 13^th, 2023	Zhong Lab website is live. Thank you so much to Justine Pinskey (Sr. Scientific Writer – Office of Health Equity), a wonderful person who helped set up, design, edit, and launch this site. Cheers!
February 20^th, 2023	Madhu Suresh, Research Associate III, joined the lab. Welcome Madhu!
February 12^th, 2023	Zhong Lab manuscript entitled “Broadly effective ACE2 decoy proteins protect mice from lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection” was submitted for peer view. Congratulations to Mengjia Lu, Weitong Yao, Yujun Li, and Danting Ma, equal first authors of this manuscript & former lab members of Zhong Lab before we started at UMass Chan.
November 22^nd, 2022	Zhong Lab manuscript entitled “Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Spikes dramatically shapes their binding affinities to animal ACE2 orthologs” was submitted and sent out for peer review. Congratulations to Weitong Yao, Yujun Li, and Danting Ma, equal first authors of this manuscript & former lab members of Zhong Lab before we started at UMass Chan.
August 22^nd, 2022	Zhong Lab former lab member Xiaojuan Tang passed her Ph.D. Qualifying Exam at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School and decided to rejoin Zhong Lab at UMass Chan as a J-1 visiting student. Welcome Xiaojuan in advance!
August 21^st, 2022	The Future Science Prize committee announced Dr. Wenhui Li as the laureate 2022 Future Science Prize – The Life Science Prize (1 million US dollars to the prize laureate) for the discovery of sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) as a receptor for HBV and HDV infection. Guocai was one of two equal first authors of the original paper reporting this discovery in 2012. The Future Science Prize committee’s comments on this discovery: “This is a milestone breakthrough in HBV research in the past three decades. The discovery uncovers a key molecular mechanism in HBV and HDV infection. This discovery facilitates the development of more effective treatment for hepatitis B and D.” Cheers!
July 5^th, 2022	Haimin Wang, Sr. Research Scientist, joined the lab. Welcome Haimin!
July 1^st, 2022	Zhong Lab officially started at UMass Chan.

February 9^th, 2021	(Before we started at UMass Chan). Zhong Lab’s SARS-CoV-2 research was interviewed and reported by Phoenix TV’s FengShows program. Cheers! Click here to learn more.
November 12^th, 2020	Hepatitis B Foundation announced Dr. Wenhui Li as the recipient of 2021 Baruch S. Blumberg Prize, the highest honor for hepatitis B research, for the discovery of sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) as a receptor for HBV and HDV infection. Guocai was one of two equal first authors of the original paper reporting this discovery in 2012.
December 26^th, 2019	Guocai’s RNA switch study went onto the front page of the Scripps Research Institute website. Cheers! Click here to learn more about our original publication.