Technique and Technology: Stem Cell Differentiation and Engineering

Dr. Zhang is professor and director of the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Prior to that, he was professor and director of the Signature Program in Neuroscience & Behavioral Disorders at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore as well as professor of Neuroscience and Neurology, Steenbock Professor in Neural and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Zhang received his MD and MS in China and PhD in Canada. He is a pioneer in stem cells and regenerative medicine. He has developed technology to guide human stem cells to functionally specialized nerve cell types that are impaired in many neurological and psychiatric conditions with 25 awarded patents and several pending applications. He established the Stem Cell & Genome Editing Core at the UW-Madison and Duke-NUS, serving investigators on campus and beyond. He has also developed stem cell-based platforms for studying neural degeneration and testing drugs for neurological diseases. In parallel, he is developing cell therapy for neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury and stroke. Dr. Zhang was a founding member of the WiCell Institute and co-founder of BrainXell, Inc and BrainXell Therapeutics, Inc.

Education

MD, Wenzhou Medical University, China
MS, Shanghai Medical University, China
PhD, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Related Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Down Syndrome, Parkinson’s Disease, Spinal Cord Injury, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Stroke

Phenomena or Processes
Brain Aging, Neurodegeneration, Neuroregeneration

Anatomical Systems and Sites
Brain

Research Models
Human Pluripotent Stem Cells, Mouse, Rat

Techniques and Technologies
3D Bioprinting, Bioinformatics, Electrophysiology, Live Cell Imaging, Neural Circuit Tracing, Neural Transplantation, Rodent Behavioral Analysis, Stem Cell Differentiation and Engineering

The Zhang laboratory focuses on addressing how functionally diversified neuronal and glial subtypes are born in the building and rebuilding of our human brain. Over the past decades, they have developed models of neural differentiation from mouse, monkey, and human pluripotent stem cells, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Building upon the success in establishing transgenic and patient stem cells as well as directed neural differentiation to regionally and functionally specialized neuronal and glial subtypes, they are dissecting the cellular and molecular processes underlying brain aging and degeneration, focusing on motor neuron diseases (ALS, SMA), Alexander disease, Down syndrome, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease as well as some rare undiagnosed disorders.  They are also transforming these cellular models to templates for drug discovery.

The Zhang laboratory has discovered that appropriately specified neurons project to correct brain regions and connect to the right targets in the adult rodent brain, suggesting a surprisingly regenerative capacity of human stem cell-produced neurons, very much like those born during embryonic development.  They have also found that the transplanted human neurons receive appropriate inputs, a process largely dependent on the cell identity. They are currently evaluating the therapeutic potential of human stem cell-generated neural subtypes in animal (including non-human primate) models of Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and spinal cord injury. In particular, they have shown that cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease is safe and effective in a nonhuman primate model. They are now preparing for clinical trial of cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease.

Recent News

• This Is Your Brain on 3-D Printing | Wall Street Journal
• UW–Madison researchers first to 3D-print functional human brain tissue | UW-Madison News
• Human Stem Cells 25 Years Later: Where are We? | PBS Wisconsin
• Stem cell project to create new model to study brain development and Down syndrome | Waisman Center News
• Individualized brain cell grafts reverse Parkinson’s symptoms in monkeys | Waisman Center News
• Stem Cell Transplant Treats Parkinson’s Disease in Monkeys | The Scientist
• Pioneering research brings potential Parkinson’s disease treatment one step closer | Waisman Center News
• Stem cells can repair Parkinson’s-damaged circuits in mouse brains | EurekAlert