WEIMIN ZHANG Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
2008-2012, B.S., China Agricultural University
2012-2018, Ph.D., Tsinghua University
2018-2023, Postdoc, NYU Langone Health
2023-2026, Research Assistant Professor, NYU Langone Health
2026-present, Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University
2026-present Principal investigator, Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University
Research interest
Since the completion of the Human Genome Project, our ability to read the genome has advanced dramatically. However, translating genomic associations into causal mechanisms and ultimately into precision therapies remains one of the greatest challenges in biomedical research.
Our laboratory develops next-generation technologies for mammalian genome writing and genome engineering to build innovative cellular and animal models. We are particularly interested in understanding the functions of large-scale regulatory elements and complex genomic regions that have remained difficult to study using conventional approaches. By investigating these regions in physiologically relevant models, we aim to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying human disease and pave the way for novel therapeutic strategies.
Selected publications
1. Zhang, W.†, Zhao, Y., Prakash, P., Appleby, H.L., Barriball, K., Capponi, S., Jiang, Q., Wudzinska, A.M., Vaine, C.A., Ellis, G., Rahman, N., Markovic, S., Mishkit, O., Limberg, K.C., Maurano, M.T., Wadghiri, Y.Z., Kim, S.Y., Timmers, H.T.M., Bragg, D.C., Liddelow, S.A., Brosh, R.†, Boeke, J.D.†. Genome writing to dissect consequences of SVA retrotransposon disease X-Linked Dystonia Parkinsonism. Cell. (In press) († correspondence)
2. Zhang, W., Golynker, I., Brosh, R., Wudzinska, A.M., Zhu, Y., Carrau, L., Damani-Yokota, P., Khairallah, C., Chalhoub, N., Huang, E., Ashe, H., Khanna, K.M., Maurano, M.T., Kim, S.Y., tenOever, B.R., Boeke, J.D. Mouse genome rewriting and tailoring of three important disease loci. Nature. 2023.
3. Zhang, W.*, Zhao, G.*, Luo, Z.*, Lin, Y., Wang, L., Guo, Y., Wang, A., Jiang, S., Jiang, Q., Wang, Y., Hou, S., Huang, J., Li, T., Qin, Y., Dong, J., Qin, Q., Zhang, J., Zou, X., He, X., Zhao, L., Xiao, Y., Shen, Y., Kuang, Z., Mitchell, L., Yang, K., Richardson, S., Chen, G., Yuan, Y., Yang, H., Lin, J., Wu, Q., Bader, J., Cai, Y., Boeke, J., Dai, J. Engineering the ribosomal DNA in a megabase synthetic chromosome. Science. 2017. (*equal contribution)
4. Zhang, W., Lazar-Stefanita, L., Yamashita, H., Shen, M.J., Mitchell, L.A., Kurasawa, H., Haase, M.A.B., Sun, X., Jiang, Q., Lauer, S.L., McCulloch, L.H., Zhao, Y., Ichikawa, D., Easo, N., Lin, S.J., Fanfani, V., Camellato, B.R., Zhu, Y., Cai, J., Xu, Z., Build-A-Genome, Zeller, K., Bader, J.S., Stracquadanio, G., Deutsch, S., Aizawa, Y., Dai, J., Boeke, J.D. Manipulating the 3D organization of the largest synthetic yeast chromosome. Molecular Cell. 2023.
5. Zhang, W.*, Zhang, X.*, Xue, Z.*, Li, Y.*, Ma, Q., Ren, X., Zhang, J., Yang, S., Yang, L., Wu, M., Ren, M., Xi, R., Liu, J., Matunis, E., Dai, J., Gao, G. Probing the function of metazoan histones with a systematic library of H3 and H4 mutants. Developmental Cell. 2019. (*equal contribution)
6. Ordoñez, R.*, Zhang, W.*, Ellis, G., Zhu, F., Ashe, H.J., Ribeiro-dos-Santos, A.M., Brosh, R., Huang, E., Hogan, M.S., Boeke, J.D., Maurano M.T. Genomic context sensitizes regulatory elements to genetic disruption. Molecular Cell. 2024. (*equal contribution)
7. Schmauch, E.*, Piening, B.*, Mohebnasab M.*, Xia, B.*, Zhu, C.*, Stern, J.*, Zhang, W.*, Dowdell, A., Loza, B.-L., Mohebnasab, M., Gragert, L., et al. Integrative Multi-omic Profiling of Two Human Decedents Receiving Pig Heart Xenografts Reveals Strong Perturbations in Early Immune-Cell and Cellular Metabolism Responses. Nature Medicine. 2024. (*equal contribution)
8. Pan, W.*, Zhang, W.*, Zheng, B.*, Camellato, B., Stern, J., Lin, Z., Khodadadi-Jamayran, A., Kim, J., Sommer, P., Khalil, K., Weldon, E., Bai, J., Zhu, Y., Meyn, P., Heguy, A., Mangiola, M., Griesemer, A., Keating, B. J., Montgomery, R. A., Xia, B., Boeke, J. D. Cellular dynamics of pig-to-human kidney xenotransplantation. Med. 2024. (*equal contribution)
9. McCulloch, L. H., Sambasivam, V., Hughes, A. L., Annaluru, N., Ramalingam, S., Fanfani, V., Lobzaev, E., Mitchell, L. A., Richardson, S. M., Cai, J., The Build A Genome Class, Sims, J. J., Bishai, W. R., Cooper, E., Muller, H., Zeller, K., Stracquadanio, G., Steinmetz, L. M., Bader, J. S., Zhang, W.†, Boeke, J. D.†, Chandrasegaran, S.† Consequences of a telomerase-related fitness defect and chromosome substitution technology in yeast synIX strains. Cell Genomics. 2023. († correspondence)
10. Zhang, W., Mitchell, L.A., Bader, J.S., and Boeke, J.D. Synthetic Genomes. Annual Review Biochemistry. 2020.
Contact information
Email: weiminzhang@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
Medical Sciences Building, Room D224
Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing 100084
