Anni Zhang

Dr. Anni Zhang serves as Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University's School of Biological Sciences with a courtesy appointment at the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering. Her interdisciplinary research bridges microbiology, immunology, and artificial intelligence to develop novel therapeutic approaches.

Dr. Zhang earned her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Hong Kong (2018) following undergraduate studies in Environmental Biology at Nanjing University (2014). Prior to joining NTU, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship (2018-2023) and subsequent research associate position (2023-2024) at MIT's Alm Lab.

Her research program focuses on Microbiome Medicine, Bacterial-Based Cancer Therapy, and Phage Therapy, utilizing AI-driven approaches to analyze microbial mechanisms. The AnniZ Lab develops computational tools for microbiome analysis while investigating antibiotic resistance gene dissemination and host-microbe interactions.

Publication analysis reveals consistent contributions to Genome Biology, Cell Genomics, and Nature Communications, demonstrating expertise in bioinformatics algorithm development, CRISPR systems, and antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Her work shows increasing integration of AI methodologies with experimental microbiology.

Dr. Zhang actively mentors graduate students including Qiwen (current PhD student) and Zhiqi (transitioning to PhD candidacy), with opportunities for new PhD candidates seeking research at the AI-microbiology interface.

The AnniZ Lab maintains active collaborations with MIT and participates in major conferences including Gordon Research Conferences. Current projects include developing AnniBot (a specialized LLM for microbiome research) and Jeff's KnowledgeGraph for microbial data integration.