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Faculty Detail    
Name JIANHUA ZHANG
 
Campus Address BMR2 534 Zip 2180
Phone 205-996-5153
E-mail zhanja@uab.edu
Other websites
     


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Pathology   Molecular & Cellular Pathology Associate Professor
Secondary  Cell, Developmntl, & Integrative Biology  Cell, Developmntl, & Integrative Biology Associate Professor
Secondary  Neurobiology  Neurobiology Assistant Professor
Center  Center for Aging  Center for Aging Associate Professor
Center  Civitan International Research Center  Civitan International Research Center Associate Professor
Center  General Clinical Research Center  Comprehensive Neuroscience Center Associate Professor
Center  Neurology   Ctr Neurodegeneration & Exp Ther (CNET) Associate Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Cell, Molecular, & Developmental Biology 
Cellular and Molecular Biology Program 
Integrative Genetics Graduate Program 
Medical Scientist Training Program 
Molecular and Cellular Pathology Program 
Neuroscience 
Neuroscience Graduate Program 
Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine 

Biographical Sketch 
Dr. Zhang graduated from University of Science and Technology of China. She received her PhD from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She then worked as a postdoctoral associate in the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and as a Research Assistant Professor in University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She joined UAB in 2005.

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
American Physiology Society  member   
Association for Neuron and Disease (AND)  member   
Birmingham Chinese Professor Association (BCPA)  president   
Chinese Biologic Investigator Society (Ray Wu society)  member   
Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine (SFRBM)  council member   
Society for Neuroscience (SFN)  member   
Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America (SCBA)  member   

Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Mechanisms and regulation of autophagy-lysosomal pathway in health and diseases
Description
Our long-term research interests are to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for autophagy, cellular bioenergetics, oxidative stress and cell death, in the context of human diseases. We use transgenic and conditional knockout mouse models, cell differentiation models to dissect mechanisms and pathways. Autophagy regulation is important for healthy aging, combating neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, liver and metabolic diseases. My laboratory currently constitutes 2 PhD earning graduate students, and 2 research associates. We are currently funded by VA and NINDS.

Positions Available
Date Posted Position Title
3/29/2013  MSTP and PhD graduate students 
1 highly motivated, hardworking and talented graduate students who are interested in molecular cellular mechanisms of autophagy/mitophagy using mouse models, primary and differentiated cell models to study how autophagy is regulated by mitochondrial dysfunction, glucose metabolism, oxidative stress and protein aggregation, and how autophagic activities play a role in response to these cellular stress.   

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Biochem J. 2013 Jun 17. [Epub ahead of print]
Bioenergetic and autophagic control by Sirt3 in response to nutrient deprivation in mouse embryonic fibroblasts.
Liang Q, Benavides GA, Vasilopoulos A, Gius D, Darley-Usmar V, Zhang J. 
23767918 
Dodson M, Darley-Usmar V, Zhang J.
Cellular Metabolic and Autophagic Pathways: Traffic Control by Redox Signaling.
Free Radic Biol Med. 2013 May 20. pii: S0891-5849(13)00224-4.  
23702245 
Le Grand JN, Bon K, Fraichard A, Zhang J, Jouvenot M, Risold P-Y, Boyer-Guittaut M, Delage-Mourroux R (2012) Specific distribution of the autophagic protein GABARAPL1/GEC1 in the developing and adult mouse brain and identification of neuronal populations expressing GABARAPL1/GEC1. PlosOne 2013 May 15;8(5):e63133  23690988 
Parekh VV, Wu L, Boyd KL, Williams, JA, Gaddy JA, Olivares-Villagomez D, Cover TL, Zong WZ, Zhang J, Van Kaer L (2013) Impaired autophagy, defective T cell homeostasis and a wasting syndrome in mice with a T cell-specific deletion of Vps34. Journal of Immunity 2013 May 15;190(10):5086-101.  23596309 
Errami Y, Brim H Oumouna-Benachour K, Oumouna M, Naura AS, Kim H, Ju J, Kim JG, Ashktorab H, Fallon K, Xu M, Zhang J, Del Valle L, Boulares HA (2013) ICAD deficiency in human colon cancer and predisposition to colon tumorigenesis: linkage to apoptosis resistance and genomic instability". PlosOne 2013;8(2):e57871.  23451280 
Crabtree D, Boyer-Guittaut M, Ouyang X, Fineberg N, Zhang J (2013) Dopamine and its metabolites in cathepsin D heterozygous mice before and after MPTP administration. Neuroscience Letters Mar 22;538:3-8  23391753 
Mitchell T, Bailey SM, Ballinger SW, Zhang J, Darley-Usmar VM (2013) Convergent mechanisms for mitochondrial dysfunction in metabolic disease; insights from mitochondrial therapeutics. Biochemical Society Transactions 41:127-133  23356271 
Errami Y, Naura AS, Kim H, Ju J, Suzuki Y, El-Bahrawy, AH, Ghonim MA, Hemeida RA, Mansy MS, Zhang J, Xu M, Boulares AH (2013) Apoptotic DNA fragmentation may be a cooperative activity between caspase-activated DNase and the PARP-regulated DNas1L3, an ER-localized endonuclease that translocates to the nucleus during apoptosis. J Biol Chem. 2013 Feb 1;288(5):3460-8.  23229555 
Hill B, Benavides G, Lancaster J, Ballinger S, Dell’Italia L, Zhang J, Darley-Usmar VM (2012) Integration of cellular bioenergetics with mitochondrial quality control and autophagy. Biological Chemistry 393:1485-1512  23092819 
Giordano S, Jisun Lee, Darley-Usmar VM, Zhang J (2012) Distinct effects of rotenone, 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium and 6-hydroxydopamine on cellular bioenergetics and cell death. PlosOne 7(9):e44610. PMCID:PMC3435291  22970265 

Keywords
Autophagy, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's disease, signal transduction, mouse genetic engineering, cell and molecular biology, lysosomes, mitochondria, oxidative stress

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