Assistant Professor, RNA Therapeutics Institute, Gene Therapy Center, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biotechnology
Email: Guocai.Zhong@umassmed.edu
Guocai received his PhD in Pathobiology in 2009, after a joint PhD training in Professor Hong Ling’s lab at Harbin Medical University and Professor Wenhui Li’s lab at the National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS), an HHMI-style research institute in Beijing, China. He then worked as a postdoc in the Li lab at NIBS and contributed to the discovery of sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) as a receptor for HBV and HDV infection. This discovery has been acknowledged as a milestone breakthrough in HBV research in the past three decades and has been honored by the 2021 Baruch S. Blumberg Prize, the highest honor for hepatitis B research, and the 2022 Future Science Prize in the Life Science category. He then joined Professor Michael Farzan’s lab at the Scripps Research Institute Florida campus and initiated RNA switch engineering studies -- a new research direction in the Farzan lab. Here, he completed a series of first and corresponding-author studies that moved artificial RNA switches from working efficiently in vitro to now functioning with wide dynamic ranges in animals. In late 2019, Guocai started his independent group at Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School in Shenzhen, China. In summer 2022, he joined the RNA Therapeutics Institute and Horae Gene Therapy Center at UMass Chan Medical School. Zhong Lab is focused on RNA switch engineering and regulatable gene therapy development.
Sr. Research Scientist, Lab Manager
Haimin got her medical degree in 2007 and then received a 2-year residency training in China. She then switched her career path to doing research. Before joining Zhong lab at UMass Chan, she was a postdoc associate at the Scripps Research Institute, Florida campus.
Research Associate III
Madhu received an integrated master of science in molecular biology in 2018 from University of Mysore, India. He then got a master's degree in pharmacology and neuroscience from Southern Illinois University in 2022. He joined Zhong lab on Feb 20, 2023.
Visiting Graduate Student
Xiaojuan is a PhD student at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, China. She joined Zhong lab at UMass Chan as a visiting graduate student since March 20, 2023.
Postdoctoral Associate
Yujun Li, PhD. Former Associate Investigator (2020-2022); now Associate Professor and Associate Director of BSL-3 Laboratory at Shenzhen University Medical School, Shenzhen, China.
Hong Pan, PhD. Former postdoc (2020-2022); now Assistant Investigator at Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
Weitong Yao, PhD. Former postdoc (2020-2022); now Assistant Investigator at Hubei Jiangxia Laboratory, Wuhan, China.
Mengjia Lu. Former graduate student (2019-2022). Mengjia is expected to graduate from Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School in the summer of 2023 and plans to rejoin us afterward.
He Zhang. Former graduate student (2021-2022); now graduate student at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, China.
Danting Ma. Former Research Assistant (2019-2022); now graduate student at Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
Xiaomei Fu. Former Research Assistant (2020-2022); now in industry.
Yifei Wang. Former Research Assistant (2019-2021); now graduate student at Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Paris, France.
Qin Zou. Former Research Assistant (2019-2020); now in industry.