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 significancein vitrousing 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 asCell Stem CellandCirculation. 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