Chongzhi Zang Lab
Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Chongzhi Zang, PhD
Office: West Complex, Room 6131C
Phone: 434-243-5397
Email: zang@virginia.edu
Website: czang.github.io
School of Medicine faculty profile
School of Engineering faculty profile
Curriculum Vitae 
Dr. Chongzhi Zang is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia School of Medicine. He holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Public Health Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and Biomedical Engineering at UVA. He is also a faculty member of the UVA Cancer Center and the UVA Data Science Institute. Chongzhi received his BS in physics from Peking University and PhD in physics from the George Washington University. He did his undergraduate research in high-field laser physics with Jie Zhang at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his PhD research in computational biophysics with Weiqun Peng and Keji Zhao at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining UVA, he completed his postdoctoral training with Xiaole Shirley Liu at Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Chongzhi is a computational biologist with expertise in cancer epigenomics. His research focuses on algorithm development for high-throughput genomic data analytics and integrative modeling of gene regulatory networks in mammalian cell systems.
Research Scientists
Zhenjia Wang, PhD
Zhenjia joined the lab as a postdoctoral research associate in January 2017 and have been a research scientist since June 2021. She received her PhD in bioinformatics from School of Mathematics, Shandong University in China. She is working on integration of publicly available transcription factor ChIP-seq data for studying functional gene regulation, and integration of RNA-seq data with ChIP-seq data for studying epigenetic mechanisms of cancer.
Sheng'en Shawn Hu, PhD
Dr. Sheng'en Shawn Hu becomes a research scientist after postdoctoral training in the lab. Before joining UVA in November 2017, he completed his PhD training in bioinformatics from School of Life Science and Technology, Tongji University in China, and was a visiting student at Harvard University. He is working on developing computatinoal methodology of integrating high-throughput chromatin accessibility data for studying functional gene regulation.
Postdoctoral Associates
Qingying Chen, PhD
Qingying Chen joined the lab as a postdoctoral research associate in January 2021. She received her PhD in physics from the University of Tulsa and her B.S. in Applied Physics from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. Her research focused on designing, simulating, and testing the interference filters for the phonic sensing, and developing coating techniques to functionalize the integrated sensing elements. She is interested in computational biology and excited to gain experience in bioinformatics research.
William Franz Lamberti received his B.A. in Mathematical Statistics from The College of New Jersey in 2015 and his M.S. in Statistical Science from George Mason University in 2017. Before joining UVA, he received his PhD in Computational Sciences and Informatics with a specialization in Data Science from George Mason University where he was a Presidential Scholar. His current research interests include image processing applications, shape analysis, and statistical and machine learning classification problems. He is planning on incorporating skills in explainable machine learning and imaging to spatial genomics problems.
Yidan Cong, PhD
Yidan Cong joined the lab as a postdoctoral research associate in June 2021. She received her PhD in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.S. in data science from Northwestern University, and B.S. in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. Her PhD research focused on synthesizing and characterizing supersoft materials that mimic biological tissues’ mechanical and optical properties, as well as developing computational tools to quantitatively correlate materials’ structure and properties. She is excited about utilizing machine learning algorithms to tackle challenging genomics research problems.
Graduate Students
Mengxue Tian
Mengxue Tian is a PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program. Before joining UVA as a research specialist in 2019, she received her B.E. and M.S. in Bioinformatics from School of Life Science and Technology, Tongji University in China. She is working on high-throughput genomics data analysis for studying transcription and replication mechanisms in different disease and biological systems.
Hongpan Zhang
Hongpan Zhang is a PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program. Before joining the lab in 2019, he obtained two bachelor's degrees in life sciences and software engineering from Sichuan University. Hongpan is keen to study the connection between genomic phenomena and diseases. He hopes to raise his knowledge of biological issues in his research work. Hongpan is a basketball fan and also loves other sports events. He is interested in historical knowledge as well.
Zhaoxia Ma
Zhaoxia Ma is a PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program. She received her M.S. in Operational Research and Computational Systems Biology from Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Honors Science Program) from Xi’an Jiaotong University. She is interested in developing computational models and utilizing computational methods to analyze genomics and epigenomics data. She enjoys listening to music and playing badminton.
Andrew Vanichkachorn
Drew Vanichkachorn is a graduate student in the Master of Public Health (MPH) program. He joined the lab in 2019 as a 3rd Year undergraduate student majoring in Global Public Health. Drew is excited to be learning about genomics and believes this field to be important in the future of medicine. He is also interested in music and enjoys playing the piano and viola when he can.
Research Assistants
Ruoyao Shi
Ruoyao Shi is a graduate student in biostatistics at the University of Michigan. She received her B.S. in biology from Tang Aoqing Honors Program in Biological Science, Jilin University, China. She joined the lab as a visiting undergraduate student in 2019, and continued doing research with the lab during graduate studies. She is enthusiastic about biostatistics and biological big data analysis, and is also interested in volunteer service, music and art in her spare time.
Megan Grieco
Megan Grieco graduated from UVA in 2021 majored in Systems Engineering and works in the lab as a research assistant while preparing for medical school. She joined the lab in Spring 2019 and has been excited about gaining experience in data science and research within the biological field. In her free time, she likes to travel, cheer on the Hoos, and rewatch the Office.
Undergraduate Students
Class of 2022
Benjamin Ke
Ben Ke is an undergraduate student (Class of 2022) majoring in Biostatistics. He looks forward to learning how to apply statistical, coding, and other skills from the classroom in actual research. He currently volunteers at the UVA Hospital through Madison House and enjoys playing tennis and chess in his free time. After graduation, he hopes to study in a medically-related field.
Emilie Neulen
Emilie Neulen is a Biology major with a possible minor in German on the pre-med track (Class of 2022). She is extremely excited to learn more about using programming in Biology and hope to apply some of the skills she will be learning to future research. After graduating, she is planning on attending medical school. In her free time, she enjoys running, playing the violin, cooking, and volunteering at the Charlottesville SPCA.
Kuki Davey
Kuki Davey is an undergraduate student (class of 2022) from Jacksonville, Florida, majoring in Biology with a minor in Spanish. She is pursuing research opportunities because she is interested in learning about how computer science and biology intersect and are used to further advance the medical field. She hopes to attend medical school in the future. During her free time, she enjoys volunteering, traveling, and reading.
Class of 2023
Naomi Luu
Naomi Luu is an undergraduate student (Class of 2023) from Northern Virginia, majoring in Biology. She is interested in biomedical research, specifically the application and impact of computational methods on the study of human diseases. She is excited to explore how the study of computer science, biology, and statistics intersect. In her free time, she enjoys reading, going to concerts, and hiking. She also volunteers through Madison House and is a member of AMSA, the All Girls Stem Society, and Alpha Epsilon Delta at UVA.
Class of 2024
Caitlin McIntyre
Caitlin McIntyre is an undergraduate student (Class of 2024) from the Bay Area majoring in global public health or biology on a pre-health track. She is fascinated by the interdisciplinary nature of genomics research and harnessing this work to discover more about gene expression and human diseases. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering through Madison House, spending time with friends and listening to music.
Class of 2025
Ivory Tang
High School Student
Sonnet Xu
Sonnet is a current student at Troy High School (class of 2023) in Michigan interested in computational biology and computer science. She looks forward to learning more about gene expression and the epigenetic mechanisms of cancer. In her free time, she likes to hike outside and travel.
Lab Alumni
Postdoctoral Associates
| Name | Background | Time at Lab | Current Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher Dampier, MD | MD, University of Michigan; General Surgery Residency, University of Virginia |
07/2019–05/2021 | Pathology Fellow, National Cancer Institute, NIH |
Graduate Students
| Name | Program | Time at Lab | Current Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yushan (Brandon) Feng | BA/MS in Computer Science/Statistics | 04/2018–05/2019 | PhD Student in Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park |
| Jiangxue Han | MS in Data Science | 07/2018–08/2019 | Capital One |
| Seung Hyun (Andrew) Lee | BA/MS in Statistics | 09/2018–05/2019 | Graduate Student in Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania |
| Jamel Simpson | PhD in Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) (Rotation) | 01/2021–02/2021 | PhD Student in BIMS, UVA |
| Wuwei Tan | MS in Statistics | 05/2017–05/2018 | PhD Student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University |
| Jose Verdezoto | PhD in Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) (Rotation) | 10/2020–11/2020 | PhD Student in BIMS, UVA |
| Yifan Zhang | MS in Biomedical Engineering | 08/2018–12/2019 |
Undergraduate Students
| Name | Major | Time at Lab | Position after graduation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yayi Feng | Biology | 09/2017–05/2020 | MS Student in Data Science, UVA |
| Alex Hickman | Biomedical Engineering | 07/2020–05/2021 | Engineer at Rivanna Medical |
| Aaron Ho | Biochemistry and Computer Science | 10/2018–05/2020 | |
| Zhou Lu | Statistics and Economics | 04/2018–05/2020 | MS Student in Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University |
| Naifei Pan | Statistics | 04/2018–02/2019 | Data Analyst at GSK |
| Sophie Park | Biochemistry and Music | 01/2019–08/2019 | Postbac IRTA Research Fellow, NIH |
| Stephany Perez-Rojas | Statistics | 01/2018–08/2019 | MS Student in Statistics, UVA |
| Xinyue Qiu | Biology and Statistics | 04/2019–05/2021 | MS Student in Biostatistics, Yale University |
| Sekou Rowe | NSF REU Summer Student; Chemical Engineering, Howard University | 05/2019–08/2019 | Undergrad Student in Chemical Engineering, Howard University |
| Allison Ryu | Computer Science | 09/2018–12/2018 | Software engineer at Amazon |
| Celina Shih | Summer Research Intern; Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University | 05/2017–08/2017 | Bioinformatician, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory |
| Zachary V. Thomas | Biomedical Engineering | 05/2019–05/2021 | PhD Student in Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California |
| Jin Yong (Jeffrey) Yoo | Computer Science | 02/2018–05/2020 | MS Student in Computer Science, UVA |
Research Assistants
| Name | Background | Time at Lab | Current Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wenjing Ma | MS in Computer Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications | 08/2018–06/2019 | PhD Student in Computer Science and Informatics (BMI track), Emory University |
| Yiren Wang | BS in Astronomy, Peking University | 07/2017–06/2018 | Graduate Student in Statistics, Columbia University |
Visting Scholars and Students
| Name | Primary Position | Time at Lab | Current Position (if different) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gang Chen, MD, PhD | Professor of Molecular Pathology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University | 09/2018–08/2019 | |
| Rongquan He, MD | PhD Student, Guangxi Medical University | 03/2018–02/2019 | Oncologist, Guangxi Medical University First Hospital |
| Qi Li | PhD Student in Statistics, Tsinghua University | 01/2018–02/2018, 03/2019 | |
| Wen Shen | Undergraduate Student in Biological Sciences, Nanjing University | 02/2018–05/2018 | Graduate Student in Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University |
We are recruiting!
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The Zang lab is recruiting motivated students and scholars to work on various topics in computational biology in a collaborative research team. Postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students are all welcome. Please visit Positions page for details.
Last modified: November 15, 2021